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[–] 23627488? [S] ago 

Swine Flu and Executive Order 13375

To casual observers, “swine flu” is a severe influenza somehow related to pigs that may result in death in the unfortunate carrier. Or, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the global outbreak “represents a new strain of H1N1 influenza virus… first detected in April 2009, which contains a combination of genes from swine, avian (bird), and human influenza viruses.”

But for conspiracy theorists, swine flu is an entirely different animal. Indeed, it represents a deliberate effort to erect one world government out of the breeding ground of fear, death and disease that would invariably be a by-product of any global pandemic (Consider the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. It is estimated to have killed anywhere from 50 to 100 million people worldwide, possibly ranking worse than the Black Death. An estimated 500 million people, one-third of the Earth’s population at the time, were infected. In other words, swine flu is absolutely nothing to sneeze at).

The Internet underworld went into overdrive in April when Bridger McGaw, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary, circulated the contagious “swine flu memo.” That devious little piece of paper reads: “The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines.”

CBS News speculated that McGaw “appears to have been referring to the section of federal law that allows the Surgeon General to detain and quarantine Americans ‘reasonably believed to be infected’ with a communicable disease.”

So what is the big deal, the reader may be wondering? After all, if 50 million people died in 1918 from Spanish flu pandemic, does the government not have a duty, if not the right, to protect all the healthy citizens from the infected ones? Apparently not, and this is where the now-infamous Executive Order 13375, signed on April 1, 2005, comes into play.

The ability of the US government to implement a quarantine order is limited to diseases listed in the presidential executive orders (tuberculosis, for example). But in Executive Order 13375, signed by President Bush, “novel forms of influenza with the potential to breed pandemics” were added among the outbreaks that could allow for a quarantine order.Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term.

Later, in November 2005, the Bush administration released the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, which envisioned closer coordination among federal agencies, the stockpiling and distribution of vaccines and anti-viral drugs, and, if necessary, government-imposed “quarantines” and “limitations of gatherings.”

For individuals with a conspiratorial frame of mind, the government was tightening the noose around the neck of freedom, hedging their bets on a global pandemic that would allow them to enact draconian measures against the people.

The flames of suspicion were fanned when it was revealed that the US Marshals, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – not the most benevolent organizations in the minds of the conspiracy theorists – would be the friendly government agencies to enforce any quarantine order.

Even the Pentagon was enlisted to lend its unwieldy support in any future bug battle.

A Defense Department planning document summarizing the military’s contingency plan says the Pentagon is prepared to assist in “quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic” and “aiding in efforts to restore and maintain order.”

Now please imagine if you will, at a time when people cannot even trust their neighborhood mailman, FBI agents showing up one sunny morning to haul Mr. and Mrs. Smith N. Wesson off to some federally-ordained quarantine zone (The Houston Astrodome, maybe, or the local hospital?). The pure logistics alone to pull off such a massive operation boggles the mind; but to think that Americans, in whatever physical condition they may happen to be, will open the door to a unit of gas-masked, gun-wielding government agents is simply wishful thinking.

So perhaps the conspiracy theorists overestimate the evilness of their government officials, who, given their efforts to mitigate the effects of other past disasters (think Hurricane Katrina), would certainly not be able to carry out the evacuation of potentially millions of infected Americans. This is also the argument given to explain away other "conspiracy theories," such as the massive one involving the curious events of 9/11: governments are simply not competent enough to plan and pull off such elaborate schemes without leaving behind a messy trail.

But good luck convincing the conspiracy theorists of that.

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[–] 23628176? ago 

The best evidence of a conspiracy is its success!

And please show me where in the Constitution POTUS has the right to make LAW? Just asking.. Oh he doesn't does he?

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[–] 23629239? [S] ago 

for what it's worth declaration of emergency + EO isn't quite a law but it isn't far from law