The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was founded on April 1, 1979, under the Jimmy Carter Administration during the height of a nearly decade-long stagflationary crisis and the Iranian oil crisis. Under Executive Order 12127, its stated goal was to centralize all disaster-related efforts under a single entity. Specifically, FEMA ended the more localized Civil Defense Agency, which was more focused on community-based emergency response, and federalized all disaster coordination under a single top-down system controlled by the Oval Office.
FEMA was also eventually placed under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, creating even more centralization. According to the government, FEMA is to aid Americans during and after a national-level disaster event; anything from earthquakes to hurricanes to terrorist attacks. Of course, it should also be noted that FEMA was officially created on April Fool's Day.
The true purposes of FEMA have long been obscured but some disturbing truths have been exposed in the past. The declassification of a program called Rex 84 (tied to Operation Garden Plot) revealed that FEMA was working directly with the Department of Defense on a strategy to round up and detain large numbers of civilians considered a "threat to national security." In other words, FEMA was to act as a tool for helping suppress civil disturbances, not necessarily helping Americans in times of need.
This was likely always the intent behind the founding of FEMA, but George HW Bush and Oliver North are cited as the men who truly militarized FEMA in the early 1980s. The goal was to establish a mechanism for controlling domestic political dissent and suspending constitutional freedoms. Oliver North was visibly enraged when this subject was broached in a congressional hearing during the Iran/Contra scandal.
It should be mentioned that documents do not list FEMA as a primary agency in control of civil disturbance response. This is where the accusations of "conspiracy theory" usually come from. FEMA is not the end-all-be-all agency in charge of locking down American rebellion. In fact, FEMA's role is strangely ambiguous and is not clearly defined. All that is known is that they are indeed an element of Operation Garden Plot and have participated in REX exercises.
That said, the secrecy around civil disturbance programs is pernicious and suggests that there is far more going on than our government cares to admit. To uncover FEMA's real intent all we have to do is examine how they behave.
The recent Hurricane Helene disaster and FEMA's handling of the response across the East Coast echoes the agency's crimes after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Their emergency "aid" is used as a cloak to hide efforts to STOP communities from helping each other and preventing outside civilian supplies from reaching affected residents in need.
Residents were treated like prisoners rather than citizens; gun confiscation took place in many areas and some people were shot for trying to leave locked-down neighborhoods. As a side note, never let anyone confiscate your firearms, especially if those people are sent by the government.
CNN reported in 2008 that FEMA confiscated at least $85 million in donated goods and prevented them from reaching Katrina disaster victims. This included clothing, bedding, food and medical supplies. They stored these materials for years and then gave away the supplies long after Katrina was over. FEMA claimed the supplies were "in excess to their needs." This report and all related articles now seem to be missing from CNN's archives.
We are seeing a repeat of this behavior from FEMA and the agencies within their oversight. We are also seeing local EMS being advised to prevent civilians from helping their communities. Supplies are once again being blocked, people with drones are being told not to help find survivors, people with helicopters are being threatened for helping save survivors and little aid reached Helene victims for days. Elon Musk's Starlink was even being prevented from providing satellite internet services to affected regions until the story went national and the Department of Transportation addressed the problem.
It's Katrina all over again, and FEMA always seems to have excuses.
But why? You would think that with an election only weeks away the Biden administration would be jumping at the chance to look competent and useful. Instead, they have done nothing. I argue that this is all deliberate. FEMA and the federal government at large are still using Operation Garden Plot-like protocols with two goals in mind:
First, they are trying to acclimate the populace to the idea that they can't help themselves and that they should do nothing. They do this by constantly interfering with civilian efforts and confiscating donations. If civilians are working on their own to save U.S. communities from calamity, then they might one day realize they don't need the federal government for anything. The establishment needs people to believe that they can't survive without government aid and protection. Luckily, at least in the aftermath of Helene, it seems that many communities are working on their own to fix the situation.
If civilians start doing things for themselves, the establishment machine becomes obsolete.
Second, I suspect FEMA is testing the waters to see how much they can get away with. Katrina was a clear beta test for martial law disguised as an emergency response. Katrina was Garden Plot and Rex-84 realized. They want to see what Americans will put up with.
Helene is yet another opportunity for these agencies to apply overt control and see if Americans will conform or rebel.
If FEMA is truly sincere in
its efforts to help Americans, they certainly don't act like it. The
criticism surrounding Helene is ramping up and FEMA's indignant attitude
toward their own failures in unacceptable. They should be punished for
failing their duties. That is assuming they are actually failing. Maybe
they consider the tragedy of government inaction surrounding Helene a
success...
To truth and knowledge,
Brandon Smith
