What is Martial Law?
Martial law is defined as: military rule or authority imposed on a civilian population when the civil authorities cannot maintain law and order, as in a time of war or during an emergency.
Martial law can be used by a Government to enforce governmental power over it’s country’s citizens. Examples of incidents are: when threatened by popular protest (such as China’s Tiananmen Square protests of 1989); to suppress political opposition (such as in Poland 1981); to stabilize perceived and/or actual insurrections (as in Canada’s “October Crisis” of 1970).
The Recent Executive Order further clarifies the plans to use Martial Law:
On March 16th, 2012 in the midst of a common political practice of finalizing government documents late on a Friday afternoon, right after the news cycle for the week wraps up – a move critics say allows the administration to avoid widespread coverage of embarrassing actions – the White House released an executive order on “National Defense Resources Preparedness.” This timing and stealthy move is much like what was done on the holiday of New Years Eve, signing of 2012 NDAA . This update to Martial Law creates the imposition of Martial Law without Congressional oversight , only Congressional briefings.
In this most recent signing on March 16, 2012 the powers over the US Citizen’s property and rights are clearly segregated into who is in control of you and what you have if/when Martial Law is declared by Commander In Chief. In the new Executive Order, not only does the president have the authority to invalidate legitimate freedoms of U.S. citizens, but also the secretaries that run the Government are now empowered to revoke certain rights of the citizens of the USA as well.
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- The Secretary of Defense has control of all water resources
- The Secretary of Transportation has control of all forms of civilian transportation, both private and public
- The Secretary of Energy has control of all forms of energy
- The Secretary of Commerce has control of all material services and facilities, including private construction materials
- The Secretary of Agriculture has control of all food resources and facilities, livestock, plant health and crops, and the domestic distribution of any farming and agricultural equipment
- The Secretary of Health and Human Services has control of all forms of health resources
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Surely we’ve used Martial Law before?
Federal Martial Law is believed to have been ordered in ‘pockets’ of our society during emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina and September 11, 2001. However; after insight and scrutiny, these were most likely simple individual states declaring a state of emergency or state-wide martial law and the deployment of the National Guard and FEMA rather than Federal Martial Law.
The last time the Federal Government enacted Martial Law it was still on a specified are. It was in Hawaii during World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Even this was not a Nation wide mandated use of Martial Law.
The only time in the History of the USA that Federal Martial Law has been declared (the Federal Government, President or Entities having control of all forms of…) was during our Nations most tumultuous time of civil unrest and division: The Civil War.
Why all the focus to update, clarify and structure Martial Law?
This gives pause for concern wondering why all the recent focus on the re-structuring of Martial Law. Within five months of the quietly signed NDAA (New Year’s Eve Martial Law signing) we see yet another Executive order restructuring the use of power within the US Government. While I see the very deliberate structured layout, control and federalizing of power as ground work for plans to invoke Martial Law on a Nation wide organized scale, the White House press secretary Jay Carney dismissed the idea that this recent Executive Order issued was even called ‘martial law’, and calls it ‘standard and routine’.
What do you think?
