Gorefest, on 17 April 2020 - 12:10 AM, said:
'the pro-Trump and largely mask-less protesters, some of whom flew Confederate flags and open-carried AR-15 and AK-47 variants'
https://www.vanityfa...NunJkUFmlr1KuuY
'Exclusive: As Washington DC faces coronavirus spike, a secret military task force prepares to secure the capital
[...] Federal officials in the nation's capital expect a New York-like epidemic in the District, Maryland and Virginia, one that could potentially cripple the government.
"No one wants to talk evacuation, especially when there's nowhere to go," says a senior military officer working on continuity of government planning; he requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the record.
But a little-known military task force charged with evacuating Washington has already been activated, a task force charged with the most sensitive government mission of "securing" Washington in the face of attackers, foreign and domestic—and if necessary, moving White House and other key government offices to alternate locations.
[...] All anyone would say was that two Blackhawk helicopter companies of the 106th Aviation Battalion were headed to Fort Belvoir, in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. There, "something big" was a special assignment in support of Joint Task Force–National Capital Region.
Unlike other Guardsmen activated under "Title 32" orders—under gubernatorial control but paid for by the federal government—the soldiers of the 106th were activated under "Title 10" orders, strict federal duty as if they were going to be shipped off to Afghanistan or Iraq. Except that in this case, the battlefield is Washington, DC.
On that battlefield, the Illinois 106th Aviation Battalion's helicopters would be used to evacuate everyone from Army leaders to the White House.
"We are that quick reaction force that allows us to help mobilize forces within the Washington DC area, evacuate people, or whatever that might be," says Cpt. Adam Kowalski of the Illinois Guard. "We're kind of like that big taxicab that makes sure everybody gets where they need to be and keeps the government going."
[...] once the Joint Task Force is activated, as it has been now, operations and units shift to what the military calls "operational command." Maj. Gen. Jones is now in charge. He isn't some martial law commander who takes precedence over any civil authorities, nor is he out in public telling anyone outside his secretive task force what to do. But he is the military man who would be in charge in Washington if civil government broke down.
[...] Maj. Gen. Jones gave an interview to "Fort Meade Declassified" on March 17[...]When asked what he was doing in his leisure time, he said that he had just finished reading a book about the riots in Washington, DC in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The name of that book? "A Nation on Fire."'
https://www.newsweek...T3dZRz3VZU0M8KA