HARPER: MILITARIZATION/ISRAELIZATION OF US POLICE

In 1990, when Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contained Section 1208, authorizing the Secretary of Defense to "transfer to Federal and State agencies personal property of the Department of Defense, including small arms and ammunition, that the Secretary determines is suitable for use by such agencies in counter-drug activities; and excess to the needs of the Department of Defense."  The "1208 Program" thus established, was updated in 1996 and became the "1033 Program" after Section 1033 of that year's NDAA.  1033 created a Law Enforcement Support Office  within the Defense Logistics Agency to manage the dispursal.          

Not surprisingly, given Dick Cheney's close ties to major defense contractors, the program was boon to the arms industry.  Police and sheriffs departments around the country received old military hardware, including humvees and other armored vehicles, which required ongoing maintenance contracts, spare parts, etc.  The program clearly established a militarization of police and sheriffs forces that has proceeded apace ever since.  I am told that the biggest expansion of the 1033 Program has occurred under the present Obama Administration.  According to a report in Newsweek on Aug. 15, so far $5.1b in military hardware has been transferred to the local police since the outset of the program.  The Defense Logistics Agency, which coordinates the dispursal of the Pentagon equipment to the police and sheriffs have rebuffed efforts by the ACLU to obtain the list of which departments have requested access to tactical equipment like M16s, MRAPS, and grenade launchers.  According to the Defense Logistic Agency's own website, half a billion dollars in equipment was passed to law enforcement agencies in 2013 alone. The New York Times reported in June that the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq and Afghanistan has accelerated the delivery of military hardware to the local police and sheriffs.  "Former tools of combat--M16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more--are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice."  Some police departments have even received military aircraft, in addition to night vision scopes, armored cars and camouflage gear.  In addition, many local police departments, including the Ferguson police, have received additional military equipment via grants from the Department of Homeland Security, including the APCs used recently in Ferguson.

 

But the 1033 Program tells only half of the story.  Not only are police and sheriffs departments encouraged to adopt military hardware for counter-narcotics and now counter-terror operations.  They are being offered specialty training in Israel under the sponsorship of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA).  Both the St. Louis County Police Department and the St. Louis Police Department have participated in the training programs in Israel.  Journalist Max Blumenthal has labeled this process the "Israelification of America's security apparatus." 

According to the ADL's own website, since 2004, over 175 American law enforcement officers have been sent to Israel--all expenses paid--to attend ADL's National Counter-Terrorism Seminar" where they "study first hand Israel's tactics and strategies... from senior commanders in the Israeli National Police, experts from Israel's intelligence and security services, and the Israeli Defense Forces."  All told, executives from 100 American law enforcement agencies have participated in the past decade alone in the ADL program.

In the same decade, JINSA has hosted a parallel program, their Law Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP) which "takes delegations of senior law enforcement executives to Israel to study methods and observe techniques used in preventing and reacting to acts of terrorism."  JINSA claims to have sent 9.500 to Israel under the LEEP program since 2004.  And many more American police and sheriffs have been brought into JINSA seminars in the United States, where Israeli experts have been imported to train and indoctrinate American cops in the Israeli approach to counter-terrorism.  If the recent razing of Gaza is any indication of the kind of training provided, the process of militarization of American law enforcement has gone a long way, just in the past decade.  ADL has been conducting its program for at least the past 30 years.  The program came under scrutiny in 1992, when the San Francisco District Attorney opened a criminal investigation into one San Francisco Police officer who had been outright recruited to spy for Israel and had illegally obtained California Department of Motor Vehicle records and other confidential data on thousands of individuals, including labor and civil rights activists, pro-Palestinian academics and activists and anti-apartheid organizers (that data was passed on through a Los Angeles private detective on the ADL payroll to South Africa's Bureau of State Security for lucrative payments).                                                               

 

Comments

[Cee]

Fred,

But it did. How many of the legislators represent, say, the Druze?
They are governed by a caste system of sorts. IE, the Druze weren't even protected from the incoming rockets from Hamas and a court even said they weren't worthy of it.
The Mizrahi and Sephardic are also second class citizens. Jews, yes. Same rights? No.
They also abuse the African minority in many ways.
The 'left' are now being arrested for simply speaking out against what the IDF are doing on orders from the government. No. Not a democracy.

[shege]

Charles, I agree that the equipment should be sent to the NG and not local police forces. OTOH (and ex-military types jump in here) I imagine the surplus equipment from the Pentagon is close to being obsolete so the NG will end up with equipment that is old and unusable overseas any way.

[turcopolier]

shege

I suppose it means little to you, but some of us are "ex-military types" and some are retired military types. that last means we are still members of the armed forces, but on the retired list. pl

[Tyler]

How many "civil rights" institutions that exist only to stir up racial animus have jewry somewhere at the head of it all?

Like you said, "not designed to favor the American people".

[shege]

PL, got it. Thanks for the clarification.

[Tyler]

I think this is a good way of putting it.

http://www.unz.com/freed/notes-from-the-drains-615/

[alba etie]

MRW
Another 'fun facts ' Mr Chertoff once he stopped being our head of Homeland Security started being the "paid a commission mouthpiece" for all those full body xray scanners at our airports .And its not just Republicans - but then Penn. Democratic Governor Ed Rendell apparently sicced private Izzie security companies on Amcits that wanted to keep their property safe from the worst practices of fracking up there.

[Richard Armstrong]

Tyler,

How many posts have been made that exist only to spew racial animus have "jewry" somewhere in them for no other reason at all?

[Edward Amame]

I doubt that criminals have gotten any nastier. Just better armed thanks to 2nd amendment absolutists. Hence we have the PD arms buildup in response.

[Tyler]

Edward Amame,

Yeah because its all those lawful gun owners committing the crimes out there versus the criminals doing what they were going to do anyway.

Make up your mind about what you want: an armed to the teeth central state or a disarmed populace.

[Tyler]

Richard Armstrong

Yeah, because noticing who's behind the PFAW, ACLU, SPLC, ADL (among others) is racial animus.

You got me bro. Reality is racist.