Crimson Contagion, Shots Across The Bow, And More
Back in the Pandemic day—it seems so long ago, somehow—we discussed a number of government sponsored exercises that simulated response to major disasters. They seemed to focus on pandemics. These exercises all featured close coordination between government agencies (including national security agencies of all sorts) and major corporations, including close control of information and “misinformation”. In other words, these exercises conjured up a vision of a future Corporate - National Security State, which used to be referred to as Fascism. Sound familiar?
Jeffrey Tucker has a fascinating—or disturbing, take your pick—article today that discusses one of these exercises. Tucker, who has covered multiple aspects of the Covid Regime, says he had never heard of this particular exercise before reading about it in Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s book The Real Anthony Fauci. I certainly hadn’t, either. The question Tucker seeks to answer is:
The great interest in Crimson Contagion (CC) is its timing as well as the people behind it. The timing was 2019. CC concluded just five months before the Covid Regime went viral, so to speak. What Tucker finds remarkable about CC it this:
… it proves that not everyone was shocked by lockdowns. They were not part of official planning documents of either the CDC or WHO but they were clearly in the plans of someone.
I’ve only followed up on this report in light of growing focus on the person who coordinated Crimson Contagion: Robert Kadlec, who served in the Trump administration as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, Preparedness and Response. It was he who also ran the Covid response between HHS and the Department of Homeland Security.
Kadec’s lifetime government service (and, yes, he is said to be CIA) extends all the way back to the G.W. Bush administration when in 2007 he took the position of Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Biodefense Policy on the Homeland Security Council from 2007 to 2009. The very notion of lockdowns originated in that administration.
Kennedy describes Kadlec as a crony and longtime comrade in arms of Little Tony Fauci.
The 2019 tabletop exercise involved a huge number of public-sector agencies across all states plus many private-sector associations. It postulated a disease scenario in which a respiratory virus begins in China and spreads around the world by air travelers. It is first detected in Chicago. The World Health Organization declares a pandemic 47 days later. But then it was too late: 110 million Americans became sick, with 7.7 million hospitalized and 586,000 dead.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before—woops! Too late. I can’t prove I ever had Covid, but in January of 2020, here in Chicago, my wife and I experienced what we considered the worst colds we had ever had. It took us weeks to get back to something like full strength. We simply felt whipped.
The conclusion of the exercise was that government was not well prepared for a pandemic and urged more planning and fast acting to implement what we now call lockdowns as we await a vaccine. Presumably, the vaccine then fixes everything.
The public knew nothing of this exercise until March 19, 2020, when the New York Times reported on it for the first time.
So, five months after the exercise concluded (it ended in October, 2019), Hey presto! Covid. Lockdowns.
Coincidence? You tell me. Here’s what Tucker writes, and you can see this drive to turn everything into a “national security” problem—that’s how you arrive at a National Security State, in which those who define “national security” possess the One Ring that rules all else:
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., reports: "second only to his longtime crony and comrade in arms Anthony Fauci, Robert Kadlec played a historic leadership role in fomenting the contagious logic that infectious disease posed a national security threat requiring a militarized response."
Tucker concludes with this food for thought:
The lockdowns – to which Trump agreed only reluctantly and were extended far past the point in which he believed they would control the virus – were the most ruinous of the administration. Trump’s pollsters for 2020 all agreed that these lockdowns created the conditions that drove him from office.
What does it all mean? Perhaps it is all just a series of coincidental data points, that what is called the worst pandemic in 100 years came only a few months after an elaborate multi-agency trial run of the same in which former high officials of the Trump administration participated. And perhaps the best person to run the Covid response also happened to be the very person who organized and managed the trial run in the previous season.
Many people will surely say there is nothing to see here. There is so much not to see these days.
As usual, more at the link. Tucker writes well. The whole article is worth your time.
Next up, another article today at Brownstone. This is a long but—again—well written article about the experiences of one man with DHS—the creepily named Department of Homeland Security. I dunno, to me that title simply has that eery ring of the National Security State, kind of 1984ish. Anyway, it will be worthwhile to introduce the author first:
Robin Koerner
Robin Koerner is a British-born citizen of the USA, who currently serves as Academic Dean of the John Locke Institute. He holds graduate degrees in both Physics and the Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge (U.K.).
I think you get the picture—this is not a guy that you would reflexively consider to be a potential or real threat to “national security.” But DHS decided otherwise.
Koerner’s story begins “a couple years ago”, i.e., during the height of the Covid Regime. He was returning from England to Seattle. He was traveling with Global Entry privileges:
Global Entry Frequently Asked Questions | U.S. Customs and Border ...
Global Entry is a risk-based approach to facilitate the entry of pre-approved travelers. Applicants may not qualify for Global Entry participation if they: Provide false or incomplete information on the application; Have been convicted of any criminal offense or have pending criminal charges, including outstanding warrants; ...
He had already been pulled aside at Heathrow and subjected to a search of his baggage just before boarding his flight—after having previously passed through all the usual security checks. When he asked what this unusual business was about, he was informed: “It’s something the Americans asked us to do.” When he arrived in Seattle he was subjected to the same treatment, only in reverse. This time he was subjected to a lengthy interrogation:
...
He took me to a nearby dedicated area for the purpose and, as he started going through my things, the questions began.
First he asked me what I had been doing abroad and where I had stayed. I told him I had been teaching in Oxford and then visiting family, staying at my mother’s home.
He asked me if I had witnessed any violence in the UK. I had not. He then asked me what I thought of the political events – especially the protests - that had been going on in the USA during the summer of my absence. I thought that question strange. Why would a customs officer have any interest in my political views? I told him honestly that I had been much too busy to have paid attention to it but would be happy to have a discussion about Brexit, about which I had plenty of views and which I had spent a good deal of time talking about to students in England.
He turned to other things, asking me whether I’m on social media. I am. He handed me the scrappiest piece of paper and a pencil and told me to write down all of the communication social media apps that I use, along with my corresponding usernames. I balked.
...
I told him that all the government has to do is Google me to find all of this information about me, including my social media presence. ...
…
There was more to the entire interaction than that, of course, but those exchanges capture it nicely.
He eventually let me go – but I was left in a spin with my blood pumping. Why all the attempts to get that personal information about my family members? Why all the intrusive questions into my personal views? Why the scrappy paper and pencil to write down – literally write down – all of my social media accounts and communication apps?!
Two weeks later, I received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, telling me that my Global Entry pass had been revoked. No reason was given, but there was a website that I could log in to file an appeal. …
…
Soon thereafter, I received a further letter telling me that my appeal had been rejected.
Eventually he obtained a copy of the DHS report on his interrogation. He says it was basically all untrue, but despite prolonged efforts—in person as well as by correspondence—he was never able to have any meaningful conversation on the matter. He had been booted from Global Entry permanently and without explanation. The one meaningful exchange he had was when he asked a DHS supervisor whether he (Koerner) was on a list of some sort. The reply: “We’re all on a list.”
There’s lots, lots more. However, months after all that transpired:
Months later, I went out for drinks with a friend of mine who has a security clearance at the Federal level. He works on servers for the National Security Agency. We’ll call him James.
I told him the story I’ve shared here, and expressed my confusion about the whole affair. Was it all just an honest mistake and a weird coincidence of events at Heathrow and Sea-Tac?
James said he couldn’t be sure but he’d be prepared to hazard a guess: “A shot across the bows.”
What on earth was he talking about?
He reminded me that I’ve been writing political articles for a long time.
“So what?” I inquired.
He reminded me more particularly that I had written an anti-lockdown and forced immunization article at the beginning of the COVID pandemic – before this all happened.
“So what?” I inquired.
“Shot across the bows,” he repeated.
I told him that if I understood what he was saying, it would only make sense if I was anyone of significance or if considerable numbers of people read my articles or gave a damn about what I think.
“You’re Google-able,” he explained. “If I put in your name, you’re right there. Shot across the bows.”
...
So, when you see articles like this, pay attention:
VP Harris Demands Social Media Companies "Cooperate And Work With Us" On "Protecting Our Democracy"
Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday that she expects and “would require” social media companies to work with the Biden administration to prevent so-called misinformation and disinformation, and to “protect democracy.”
BTW, it’s been a long time since I’ve traveled anywhere. But there you have it. We live in a National Security State. And it was put in place by Dubya with DHS and the Patriot Act.
And More!
Best government money can buy!
Unbelievable and Shocking on Robin Koerner.
It’s surprising how that keeps on happening to my world view the last couple of years.
Given the MASSIVE amount of money handed over to Ukraine this year, can anyone on this website offer any insight as to whether the defense establishment rationale contained in the following thread makes any sense?
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1605604917347028992.html