Okay, I admit to a touch of hyperbole in order to get your attention. However, I came across this very disturbing blog entry on the web site of the stalwart Mr. David Neiwert.
This article is from the Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram:

Halliburton subsidiary nets contract amid suspicion

By Mason Stockstill, Staff writer

A Houston-based construction firm with ties to the White House has been awarded an open-ended contract to build immigration detention centers that could total $385 million a move some critics called questionable.

The contract calls for KBR, a subsidiary of oil engineering and construction giant Halliburton, to build temporary detention facilities in the event of an “immigration emergency,” according to U.S. officials.

“If, for example, there were some sort of upheaval in another country that would cause mass migration, that’s the type of situation that this contract would address,” said Jamie Zuieback of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Essentially, this is a contingency contract.”

Under the contract, which was awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, KBR could also be tasked to operate one or more temporary detention facilities, and to develop a plan for responding to a natural disaster in which ICE personnel participate in relief efforts.

Do I still have your attention?

Neiwert then links to this column by Tom Hennessy:

This column is written with the distinct feeling that not many people will give a hoot about any or all of this. But as already noted, a news story about construction of government detention centers should give us all pause.

Considering what took place in Nazi Germany, as well as the shameful incarceration of Japanese-Americans in 1942, no detention camp should be built without the widest possible public scrutiny.

Bottom line: The contract cries out for greater attention. So far, the government’s expressed reason for building them is insufficient and ill-defined. And even if the camps do relate to illegal immigration, their purpose could be changed overnight.

This is an instance in which we could be well served by our representatives in Congress. They need to look at this and give constituents a better picture of what is going on.

Let’s not have it said, years from now, that no one ever questioned this.

Some may say this is tin-foil hat country. To which I would reply: How bad do things have to get before we begin to use the F-word?

So, as Hennessy suggests, it would behoove all of us to begin asking: Just what crisis of “mass immigration” does the government foresee as a possibility? And is it strong enough to warrant the actual construction of concentration camps?

And most of all: Why now?

Neiwert is no Chicken Little. He work is, in my opinion, right up there with the SPLC when it comes to monitoring and exposing the activites of the far Right, albeit on a smaller scale. In other words, if Neiwert yells “fire!” you better start looking for the exits. I strongly encourage every to bookmark his excellent blog.

Thoughts?

[editor’s note, by urizon]I added a few blockquotes in an effort to emphasise what I see as an important story needing wider exposure. My apologies for the somewhat sloppy original post.

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