Sunday, March 22, 2009

Prison Planet Fails the Reading Comprehension Test, Again

From time to time I browse over to Alex Jones' Prison Planet website just to see what nutty things they are going on about. This morning I was surprised to see this shocking headline:

Army Dispatched in Response to End the Fed Protests

I was expecting to hear lurid tales of combat vets baring truncheons brutally beating conspiracy theorists, but alas I was disappointed. They post the army documents as supposed proof, and if you read them, you find out this has nothing to do with the army being "dispatched". The ironic thing is the first paragraph of the article actually lays this out.

The Liberty Restoration Project blog has posted an advisory released last November by the United States Army Reserve. “The United States Army Reserve Command is publishing this Force Protection Advisory to advise all Army Reserve personnel of the planned protests at all Federal Reserve Banks and office locations within the United States on 22 November 2008,” the document reads. “This message provides situational awareness and recommended mitigation measures.”

Hello, this is a Force Protection Advisory, it is just letting Army personnel know that there is a major protest scheduled and to be aware of it. What are those ominous "mitigation measures"? Well that is in paragraph 5 of the document:

Precautions. Be aware of your environment at all times. If you are verbally assaulted, do not retaliate by getting into a physical altercation. Whenever you can, call the local law enforcement authorities. Carry your cell phone.

OMG! Martial law. They allow military people to have cell phones!!

This actually is a routine form letter. As a member of the National Guard I get these just about anytime there is a major anti-war protest. They don't want military personnel to accidentally get caught up in protests, it has nothing to do with any "response" to the protest itself, other than avoiding them.