Stripes – by Jon HarperWASHINGTON — U.S. Army Special Operations Command is pushing back against alarmist claims that an upcoming U.S. military exercise is a preparation for imposing martial law or subduing right-leaning groups and individuals.
Conspiracy theories about the exercise, known as JADE HELM 15, appeared online this week. Some commentators railing against the event referred to an online slide show allegedly created by USASOC, which outlined a special operations exercise slated to take place across multiple states, outside the confines of U.S. military bases. In the slide show, a map of the southwest region of the United States labels Texas and other territory as “hostile” or “insurgent pocket.” The document also refers to coordination with law enforcement agencies.
Officials at USASOCM were not able to immediately verify the authenticity of the slide show because their computer firewalls prevented them from accessing the websites where the document appeared.
Army Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria, a USASOC spokesman, confirmed that there is an upcoming exercise called Jade Helm 15 which is scheduled to take place this summer at locations in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, California and Nevada. But he denied the event is preparation for some sort of military takeover.
“That notion was proposed by a few individuals who are unfamiliar with how and why USASOC conducts training exercises,” he said in an email. “This exercise is routine training to maintain a high level of readiness for Army Special Operations Forces because they must be ready to support potential missions anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice.”
He said the only thing unique about this particular exercise, which is slated to take place between July 15 and Sept. 15, is “the use of new challenging terrain” which was chosen because it is similar to conditions special operations forces operate in overseas.
Lastoria said coordination with local law enforcement is necessary for safety reasons because some of the training will take place outside of military bases where civilian agencies have jurisdiction.
He said his office has been receiving a lot of calls from people who heard about the exercise and are concerned about “the nature of the training objectives.”
harper.jon@stripes.com
Twitter: @JHarperStripes
“But he denied the event is preparation for some sort of military takeover.”
We weren’t expecting a confession.
I’m still calling this a spying mission, (or “intelligence gathering” mission) disguised as spy training.
They’re trying to figure out how much resistance they’ll meet.
“That notion was proposed by a few individuals who are unfamiliar with how and why USASOC conducts training exercises,” he said in an email. “This exercise is routine training to maintain a high level of readiness for Army Special Operations Forces because they must be ready to support potential missions anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice.”
“F”ing poppycock!! you train to secede!! “in the world on a moments notice”??
WTF?? theyve been working on this and preparing for months…They do think we’re stupid, have to give em’ that…
Well, when you join forces with the enemy in occupation to ravage people around the world, including us, darn right we are suspicious with every right to be, as you are aiding and abetting the enemy.
All of this is training for the future that they know is going to happen.Some citizens still are living in denial of what is going on right under their noses but that doesn’t change the fact at all that it is going on. This is training for the police and military to work in conjunction with what the traitors at the top tell them to do and this goes for the traitors at the state and local level also.It is to gauge the situation and to get the citizens use to seeing pigs and military working together. Do you really think that the purge of the brass at the top in the military was over them getting a piece of ass? If you do you are beyond stupid and to be pity ed ! Question 46 is real and most don’t even know what it is and it was not asked for kicks and giggles either.We are living in and ever tightening police state and to deny that is foolish. It is also foolish to think that the next vetted criminal going into office id going to change anything for the better for the common man.You are going to get the same results that you have got in the past by working in the system that is enslaving you and your children. The real enemy to this country is the pentagon and the federal government which has for the most part infected the governments at the state and local areas as well! What these traitors are really doing is preparing for civil war that THEY are going to make that sure happens.They go over seas and to other countries and do it all the time so why not here?