THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW "NATIONAL SECURITY APPARATUS" IN THE UNITED STATES AND WHAT IT WILL MEAN TO YOU

INTRODUCTION

This is the first in a series of articles and broadcasts designed to acquaint you with the realities of the developing NATIONAL SECURITY STATE in the United States, and to warn you to get out of the country while there is still time. Believe me when I tell you - as someone who was intimately connected to the Phoenix Program in Vietnam (I was an instructor at the program's "in-country" training facility at Vung Tau, Vietnam) - you should not think, even for a minute, that you will be able to sustain the pressure that will soon befall you in the United States, and that is precisely why the Lord instructs ALL of His followers to get out of the U.S.:

"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Re 18:4)

Only IDIOTS - like some of my erstwhile colleagues - will beat their chest and say that they will be able to resist the pressure (i.e., the torture and the horror) that will be brought to bear against them, and not only them but their loved ones as well. None of these people have ANY idea about what goes on in these places.

Make it a week-by-week event in your home. There will be one broadcast on this subject per week, and each broadcast will be about an hour in duration. The "neat thing" about these broadcasts is that you can turn them into a social affair - and to that end, we URGE you to invite your friends, neighbors and people of like mind into your home to listen to these broadcasts with you. Afterwards, you can have some refreshments and discuss with each other what all this means to you. It will give you something to pray about, and - hopefully - to begin taking action on. These are very serious matters - and they are matters that will shortly begin to impact your life in very personal ways.

WE FACE A CRISIS

The fact of the matter is, we are facing a crisis today - the crisis of what the Bible calls the "end of days."  It's a crisis from which none of us can escape, and ignoring this will not make it go away.

What then should we do with regard to this crisis? Menachem Begin, the former Prime Minister of Israel, faced a similar crisis in his life and in the life of the Jewish People in the early 1940s. The crisis he faced had to do with whether or not he should wait for the end of World War II and the plodding negotiations of Jewish "mainline moderates" like Dr. Chaim Weizmann and the World Zionist Organization to press the British Mandate Authority to facilitate Jewish immigration to Palestine (all this in addition to having to rely on the maddening timidity of the mainline Jewish defense organization - the Haganah - to secure their safety in Palestine), or whether he should join up with the radicals, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and the Irgun Zvai Leumi - and hang the "niceties of diplomacy."

He finally chose Jabotinsky and the Irgun! - and he never looked back. Years later, in remarking on the single-mindedness of the organization he finally joined - i.e., the Irgun - he said: "In times like those, there is no greater force than people who (1) have the ability to see beyond the concerns of daily life, despite the sometimes very pressing nature of those concerns, (2) who possess the capacity for self-sacrifice, and (3) who are willing to get involved!" Begin believed that the rest didn't matter! And so it is with us today, the rest doesn't matter! - one's natural talent, one's standing within the church, one's ability to speak, one's wealth, one's education, one's personality, the number of mistakes one has made in his or her life, one's age, one's sex, etc. - all of that is inconsequential in comparison.

A CALL TO ACTION

Antipas Ministries is a ministry calling Christians to action, and it is addressing this call to the same the kind of people who joined themselves to Vladimir Jabotinsky and the Irgun; to the kind of people who possess vision and the capacity for self-sacrifice. It's a call for them to get involved! And to do it NOW! - before it's too late. To wait is to make prophecy of no effect - after all, prophecy is meaningless to those who refuse to do anything about it. Prophecy is nothing more than a roadsign telling us of the danger that's ahead and warning us to take action BEFORE we get to the danger. If we do nothing until we finally get there, it will be too late.

Knowledge which does not produce action is worthless! It is to those persons who possess the willingness to get involved that we now turn and to whom we now direct the following remarks: first, there are many things which will hinder you from getting involved - and sadly, your greatest hindrance will probably be those dear Christian brothers and sisters who claim to see what you see, but who caution "moderation." Those who do, however, are usually people who have a stake in the status quo - in other words, there's a reason behind their so-called "moderation" - they probably have a lot more to lose than you do. The fact of the matter is, not many rich, not many successful, not many "high church officials" will abandon "moderation" - they have too much to lose. This is why Jesus said, "... It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matt. 19:24) and why Paul said, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called ..." (1 Cor. 1:26).

THE SILLINESS OF MODERATION

Mostly, those who caution "moderation" are people who - while they might see objectively what you're talking about and who might even find it stimulating to sit in the safety of their living rooms for hours on end discussing this or that "end-times scenario" - will go ballistic if you actually suggest doing something about it. That's when the "moderates" panic! That's when people get labeled a "Jim Jones," a "Branch Davidian," a reckless and irresponsible radical, an "Unloving Person." But look beyond the labels and you might see something else at work here! - a selfish effort by the "moderates" to shame you into silence and inaction. Why? - because if such thinking were to really catch on, they will be shown to be what they really are - spiritual cowards who have too much at stake in this world and in the status quo of today's church to get involved - whether it be pastors who have their reputation and pay checks to guard, ministry leaders who depend on "compromised" sources of income, wives who have their "nests" to protect from the "irresponsibility" of a husband who has hit the "nut circuit," Christian business people and professionals who have their "reputations" to protect, etc. - and in order to hide that fact, they are willing to stop at nothing to put the "radicals" to an open shame.

"Moderates" are the people who are given to writing time-consuming memoranda, holding "bigwig" conferences, "reasoning" with the opposition, discussing things endlessly - and not for the purpose of finding out the truth, but of "buying time" and "confusing the issue" - "Did so and so really say such and such? - I don't care whether a thousand witnesses heard him - let's find out what really happened." The object here, of course, is not to get to the bottom of what happened - after all, if a thousand witnesses won't suffice, nothing will - the real object is to get everything so tied up in red tape that by the time it's "sorted out," everyone will have "gone home."

To the "moderates," we would simply say this, What does one do with people who want to tie the church to the American New World Order System? - reason with them? What's there to reason about? These people know what they're doing! - and you are not the first to question them on these matters. They've heard all the arguments before. What value is there in meeting with such people? What does one say to a Paul Crouch, for example, when he says that those who are standing against the church's alliance with the American New World Order System should be shot? Discuss with him the kind of gun that is best for such a purpose? Negotiate with him over the ammunition that should be used? What utter nonsense!" - after all, what's at stake here is the church's soul! There is nothing to negotiate about! And if those you love in the church refuse to go along, and you think to stay for their sake, be assured, you'll accomplish nothing - you're "going" will accomplish more than your "staying" ever could by showing them by deeds rather than words how serious matters really are - Remember, what's at stake here is eternity! - your eternity! Get involved! Don't wait until it's too late!

GET OUT NOW WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME

And now to the matter at hand. In our "main article" of March 28, 2006, entitled, "A DREADFUL NATION;" AN "OVERFLOWING SCOURGE:" THE RISE OF U.S. NUCLEAR SUPERIORITY," we spoke of a coming nuclear war in the Middle East - a war that will obliterate your chance of escaping the United States in obedience to God's command in Revelation 18:4 - a war that will evaporate that possibility like so much smoke on a windy day, and one that will catch you in a vise from which there will be no escape. 

It is PRECISELY for this reason that the Bible says that we are to -

"COME OUT of her … that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. 18:4)

Still Christians hesitate! In the final analysis, they don't seem to see what's happening - though the facts of the matter are plain enough for anyone to see: the FACT that America has embarked on a policy of ENDLESS war; the FACT that the re-imposition of the draft is only a hair's breadth away - a draft that will enlist their sons and daughters in this war to be maimed and killed in the service of corporate greed; the FACT that their country is sliding inexorably into dictatorship; the FACT that their right to assemble and protest the policies of the government is being restricted to the point where it no longer has any practical meaning; the FACT of the increasing restrictions on their right to travel; the FACT of the new and massive increase of government surveillance; the FACT of the massive "militarization of the police;" the FACT that the government can wiretap their phones, monitor their email and Internet usage, search their homes and businesses, and seize documents all without a warrant; the FACT that the government can now arrest people without charges and hold them indefinitely (i.e., "disappear" people); the FACT that the government is blurring the wall between the police functions of the state and its intelligence functions, and so forth and so on.

THE GRADUAL HABITUATION OF THE PEOPLE
TO THE MECHANISMS OF A POLICE STATE

Milton Mayer, once a well-known essayist, described a similar escalation of surveillance and control sixty years ago in the gathering storm of German fascism. He interviewed a German philologist who described the process in terms that might sound familiar:

"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to be governed by surprise, to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believe that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security ... The separation of government from the people, this widening gap, took place so gradually and insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter ... Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted' that, unless one were to detach from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures' that no 'patriotic German' could resist must some day lead to, ONE NO MORE SAW IT DEVELOPING FROM DAY TO DAY THAN A FARMER IN HIS FIELD SEES THE CORN GROWING ...

"Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, THINKING THAT OTHER PEOPLE, WHEN SUCH A SHOCK COMES, WILL JOIN YOU IN RESISTING SOMEHOW ...

"Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, WHAT YOU HAVEN'T DONE (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we did nothing) ... You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. YOU ARE COMPROMISED BEYOND REPAIR."

MAKING TRAVEL A PRIVILEGE
RATHER THAN A RIGHT

It's with this is mind that we turn now to the processes that have now taken hold on the American people - measures that are already in place, and as we do so, detach yourself for a moment - as Mayer suggests - and consider just how far we have come insofar as this process is concerned in our country.

One of the most effective tools in controlling a population in a Police-State is the ability of the police to impede a citizen's ability to freely move about, and to subject him constantly to questions and background checks. Those of you who have ever visited one of America's Third World client-states know what I'm talking about here - like Colombia, Peru, etc. Roadblocks are everywhere! The police are forever asking you for your personal papers and your I.D. And if you stand around long enough at a roadblock - which is not a very smart thing to do - you will every now and then see someone pulled out of a car or a bus, roughly interrogated, and sometimes hauled away to who knows where.

Of course, all this has been going on for sometime now in the neighborhoods of the poor - and I know what I'm speaking about here: I used to live in a very poor neighborhood in Sacramento, and I cannot begin to tell you how often I was stopped at "police roadblocks" to undergo a "warrants check" on the flimsiest of technicalities (defective tail light, mud on a license plate - anything will do including looking at the police cross-eyed), and now all this is being expanded to the middle-class. That's what the new screening system for airline passengers is all about - AND IT MAKES WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN THE THIRD WORLD AND IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF THE POOR LOOK "STONE-AGE" IN COMPARISON.

Consider what's been going on insofar as air travel is concerned - and in doing so, understand - Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice explains - that what is now being done to airline travel is gradually being extended to all forms of travel.

AIR TRAVEL

Increasingly, airport passengers are being detained for hours, even days, and missing flights because they fit a "terrorist profile" based on appearance, airport behavior, travel itinerary or other criteria. They are being strip searched, including body cavity searches, X-rayed, forced to take laxatives, their bowel movements monitored. Now, if you say that all this is being done to safeguard our security. Then I can tell you that you would have made a nice little Nazi in the Third Reich of some sixty years ago because that is precisely the reasons they gave in implementing the exact same steps then. "Public safety," "national security," and the phrase, "If you have nothing to hide, then you shouldn't be afraid" come straight out of the 1934 Hitler Youth Handbook.

For example, take what Jamie Chapman of the WSWS news agency has discovered: the TSA (the U.S. Transportation Security Agency) recently gave the go-ahead for a new screening system at U.S. airports: the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening program, known as CAPPS 2. [It should be noted that this system was initially "pulled" as a result of a public outcry several years ago; the outcry was initiated when Delta Airlines initially agreed to submit its passenger data to the government, but opponents of the plan set up a web site promoting a boycott. The government then withdrew the plan for a short while and reintroduced it piecemeal, and has since reassembled it as a coherent system.]

THE REASSEMBLED CAPPS 2 PROGRAM

The reassembled CAPPS 2 system involves a two-stage process for determining who will be subjected to additional security checks at airports, and who will be denied the right to fly. Denied the right to fly? WOW! Chapman writes:

"CAPPS 2 REPRESENTS A MAJOR BUILDUP OF THE POLICE-STATE APPARATUS THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN DEVELOPING UNDER THE GUISE OF THE "WAR ON TERROR." TURNING AIRPORTS INTO INTERNAL CHECKPOINTS, SIMILAR TO ROADBLOCKS, IT CREATES A BLANKET SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE COMINGS AND GOINGS OF CITIZENS AND NON-CITIZENS."

And what Chapman says is true: the TSA is setting up what amounts to be an internal passport system just like the one the old Soviet Union had. They don't call it that, of course, but it has the same effect. If you are a "good communist" you can travel about freely; if you are not, you can't. TRAVEL BECOMES A PRIVILEGE RATHER THAN A RIGHT - A PRIVILEGE THAT THE GOVERNMENT DOLLS OUT TO ITS SYCOPHANTS AND TOADIES, AND DENIES TO THOSE WHO AREN'T TOEING THE PARTY-LINE.

ASSIGNING A NUMERICAL VALUE TO AIR TRAVELERS

As described by Chapman, stage one of the new CAPPS 2 system has the airlines turn over each passenger's reservation data, including name, address, telephone number, and even travel itinerary to the government, which will now also require airlines to obtain the passenger's date of birth when he makes a reservation. The data is given in turn to a private contractor, who checks it against large databases developed commercially from public records and other sources such as credit bureaus and marketing lists. Social Security numbers are added to the passenger data from these records.

The contractor assigns a numerical value to each traveler, designed to rate the likelihood that he is the person he says he is. The rating is then passed back to the TSA, which then cross-checks the information against federal "do-not-fly" lists. Up until now the government has claimed that only suspected terrorists were tracked. Now, however, the TSA has expanded the list to include supposedly violent criminals. The TSA has not said whether a conviction or simply an arrest will earn someone a place on the list, nor exactly what crimes are considered violent. Furthermore, the list of criteria appears to have been vastly expanded in recent years to include almost anyone deemed inimical to the American New World Order System - but the government refuses to discuss the precise criteria that will land one on the "do-not-fly" list.

The gradual expansion of the "no-fly-list" has had a very chilling effect on passengers since anyone pulled from a passenger line at a terminal will be deemed by others to be a common criminal, a terrorist, or a traitor to the country. Think how embarrassed people will be - YOU for instance! - being pulled out of line and taken away. And remember here, under CAPPS 2 you're being pulled out of line not so much as the result of a so-called "random search," but because you don't score high enough on the CAPPS 2. And what was the reason for that? What will your friends be thinking?

GOOD TOADIES BECOME
"TRUSTED TRAVELERS"

Hand in hand with CAPPS 2 another program for "trusted travelers" is being instituted under which "good toadies" and "trusted sycophants" of the state can submit their personal data - possible to include a fingerprint and retina scan - in advance to the TSA, which will issue them an identity card that automatically earns them "green status" when they check in. Chapman says,

"This creation of a preferred class of travelers will automatically throw greater suspicion on those who have not obtained the special ID (i.e., the "green pass"), adding to the pressure for people to participate. One would expect that soon the identity card would be used in other business sectors - perhaps to check into a hotel - as well."

Wow! - a "Green Card" - kind of like having a gold or platinum Visa card: something that says, "I'm better than the rest of you. I don't have to stand in line like the peons." One can only imagine the brown-nosing that will go on to get one of these cards! - and the concomitant embarrassment that will accrue to those who don't qualify for such a card!

"RED" RATINGS

As we indicated previously, no definite information is being released on the specific criteria established for assigning a "red" or "yellow" rating. But this much is known: In addition to being an extensive identity check, the stage one numerical rating incorporates an assessment of whether the traveler is "rooted in the community." Does this mean that someone without a long credit or shopping history will be considered a high risk, which means anyone who uses cash rather than credit or debit cards? Now stop and think about the implications of that for those of you who think you can outsmart the government by using only cash - USE CASH ONLY AND YOU RISK BEING ASSIGNED A "YELLOW" OR "RED" RATING FOR NOT BEING "ROOTED IN THE COMMUNITY." Then go ahead and try traveling around the country and see how far you get.

The real truth of the matter is, this system has been specifically designed to "target" political opponents by placing them in the "red" category without having to make any accounting of that action. Someone who finds himself banned from travel has no recourse. In truly KAFKAESQUE fashion, he cannot find out how his name got on the "do-not-fly" list, nor how he would be able to get it removed. He may suspect the reason why he is on the "do-not-fly" list, but he cannot know for sure. The TSA claims it will have an ombudsman to whom those who feel they have been erroneously subjected to restrictions can complain, but there is no indication as to what authority the ombudsman will actually have.

TSA spokesmen expect that the new system will reduce the number of passengers subjected to additional searches from the current 14 percent to as low as 5 percent. However, the computerized background and criminal record checks are expected to significantly increase the number of people who are denied permission to fly. If you have ever spoken out against the government, if you have ever attended an anti-globalist rally, if you have ever demonstrated against any of the institutions of the American New World Order System - the IMF, the World Bank, or the WTO - expect that someday soon you will receive a "yellow" or "red" rating.

Speaking specifically concerning CAPPS 2, Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice writes:

"(CAPPS 2) ... is not the innocuous, though annoying, collection of information done by telemarketers and other so-called solicitors that is used to deluge our postal boxes and computer accounts with targeted junk mail. This is a compilation of private information, from various sources, that you may not want collected and distributed without you knowledge or consent ... Once this coloring scheme (i.e., green, yellow and red) is in place, why limit it to airline passengers? To maximize homeland security, the government could extend this system to railroad depots, bus stations and beyond."

CARS, BRIDGES, TUNNELS, AND TOLLWAYS

And Hentoff is right! - if turning airports into "internal security checkpoints" is REAL now, can establishing checkpoints for private cars passing through bridges, tunnels, and expressway toll booths be far behind? The fact is, the implementation of just such a CAPPS 2 Program for car, bus and rail travel has already begun. Those who have already earned a "green rating" insofar as air travel is concerned will, no doubt, be issued an electronic pass; all others will have to stop and submit to a "search" to get through - analogous to the search at airports for those passengers having a "yellow rating."

Once this system is fully implemented - and if you have a "red rating" - you might as well push your car over a cliff and start "hoofing" it. So much for those Christians who think they can wait around until the last moment to flee. How are they going to get out of the United States, or even travel from city to city? Walk? - all the way to the Canadian border from Memphis, Sacramento, St. Louis, Columbus, etc.?

Again, as Chapman says, there is a direct parallel between what happened in the old Soviet Union and the East Bloc to what is happening today in the United States. The government is imposing internal travel restrictions on the American people, and in doing so, it is essentially following the Soviet textbook. That's what Hentoff thinks too! He writes:

"Once a computer system is developed, by its very nature, it's child's play to share its results across a broad range of groups, in this case, government agencies. We would then be constantly screened through a network of government checkpoints, which, ironically, is an image often ominously mocked in American movies as part of a Communist or fascist nation's modus operandi."

CONSIDER WHAT'S ALREADY HAPPENING

Already there is a good deal of evidence that the government is moving quickly to implement a CAPPS 2 system on all forms of travel - to include ground travel. Consider the following instances (and in doing so, you must understand that the instances cited below are just the tip of the ice berg):

• Motorists are increasingly being stopped on highways on the flimsiest of excuses (unsafe lane changes, tail light infractions, failures to signal, etc.) and then intimidated into submitting to a search of their vehicles without "probable cause." If they refuse, that alone is often taken as "probable cause" (or "probable cause" is "created" - which occurs more often than most people realize), and their vehicles are searched anyway.
• New Jersey state troopers (acting on behalf of the federal government) are enlisting hotel workers along the New Jersey Turnpike to tip them off about suspicious guests who, among other things PAY FOR THEIR ROOMS IN CASH, or receive a flurry of phone calls; hotel managers are allowing troopers, without a warrant, to leaf through the credit card receipts and registration forms of guests; the troopers are given surveillance seminars to train employees to scrutinize guests who fit a given "profile." IF THIS WERE DONE IN THE OLD SOVIET UNION, ONE WOULD NOT BE INCORRECT IN LABELING SUCH ACTIVITY AS THE ACTIVITY OF A "POLICE-STATE." Of course, one could retort that the police are merely trying to "combat crime." But then, that's what the police in the old Soviet Union would have said too.
• A driver, stopped by the police, tapes the encounter. When he goes to the local police station to complain about his treatment, he is asked to hand the tape over. He's then charged with illegal wiretapping. It seems that it's okay for the police to record and video tape these stops for their records, but it is not okay for private citizens who are the targets of such "illegal" and warrantless" stops to do so. Again, privileges extended to the police that are not extended to average citizens. THIS IS THE KIND OF ATTITUDE ONE WOULD EXPECT TO FIND IN A "POLICE-STATE," BUT NOT IN A "FREE SOCIETY." The term "free society" is a meaningless, empty phrase if it does not mean a society that is free from harassment from its own police.
• Intercity busses and trains are being boarded by federal agents to conduct searches of passengers' belongings. Passengers are assured that it's all "voluntary." One is reminded of World War II movies where busses in occupied countries are routinely stopped by the SS and the Gestapo in search of provocateurs.

WHAT WILL CHRISTIANS DO?

What will Christians under this kind of system - especially when so much "face" is involved? What will they do when their business associates are passed through the security gates at an airport or through security check points for car, bus and rail traffic because they possess "green passes" and they don't? The pressure on Christians at this point to cave into the system, compromise their faith, and obtain a "green pass" will be overwhelming.

And, moreover, the pressure to break off any relationship with a brother or sister in the Lord who has the courage to stand up against the system will be enormous; after all, to continue in such a relationship with a person like that could not help but jeopardize one's "green status." And then what? [And, again, remember here, we're not talking about some kind of imaginary Orwellian program to be implemented sometime in the obscure future, but one that is being implemented right now!]

Most Christians, of course, think that they will have the courage to stand up to such a system. But I doubt it! Travel is just too important in or daily lives for most people to be deprived of it. And even if you do possess the courage to endure the affliction of a "yellow" or "red" status insofar as your ability to move about in the United States - a status that will essentially confine you to your home - how will you then be able to involve yourself in the things of the Lord by sitting in a chair alone at home.

Moreover, once an expanded war breaks out in the Middle East, Martial Law will be declared, your movements will be even more curtailed, and not just on a legal basis, but also because of a severe shortage of gasoline that will occur as a natural outcome of this war. Thus, even if you can find a way to skirt the legal restrictions that will surely impress themselves even more urgently on all forms of travel, the resultant gasoline shortage will certainly limit your ability to travel and get around - not only insofar as your own vehicle is concerned, but by bus, train, and air travel as well.

And be clear, even if you have the money to spend on gasoline for a "last ditch" effort to reach the border and escape the country - provided that you can get through the border, which will be highly unlikely, indeed, virtually impossible - your ability to buy gasoline at any price will no doubt be limited by a rationing program that will restrict travel by car to only a few miles per month.

Moreover, if there is anything in your background that would suggest that you are "unreliable," be sure that you will be discovered by the "data-mining" techniques the government has now arrayed against its citizens, and you will surely be arrested and shipped off to a concentration camp. And be clear here - there will be no escape from these camps unless you are prepared to unswervingly swear allegiance to the new National Security State, and by doing so, compromising yourself forever insofar as Christ is concerned.

More about all this in our broadcast next week.

Until then, this is S.R. Shearer signing off until then.

God bless you.