Have a Nice Apocalypse!

Detroit, Riot City: In scenes better suited to a Third World country (above, and below right), tens of thousands of desperate people assemble outside Detroit's Cobo Center in the hope of receiving $3,500 emergency welfare aid disbursements. Unemployment in Detroit is nearly 29 percent.



An individual in the habit of passing bad checks can't complain that he's the victim of a criminal conspiracy if local merchants compare notes and decide not to take any more of his bank drafts. Such coordinated action isn't a "plot" or a "scheme" -- it's a form of cooperative self-defense by people who have been victimized by fraud.


The same principle applies to the alleged "conspiracy" against the U.S. dollar reported earlier this week by Robert Fisk of the London Independent:


"In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar."


As Fisk pointed out in a follow-up report, the "de-dollarization" of the oil market -- a process Iran has already begun, which helps explain Washington's bellicosity toward Tehran -- "reflects a growing resentment in the Middle East, Europe and China at America's decades-long political as well as economic world dominance."


After unpacking that observation a little bit we should understand that the resentment has as much to do with the method Washington has employed to maintain its dominance, as with the fact of that dominance itself: Since the dollar was entirely de-coupled from gold in August 1971, Washington has essentially been running an empire on money borrowed from the same people it seeks to push around.


During the most hubristic phase of the Bush-Cheney regime, Pentagon "futurist" Thomas P.M. Barnett explained that in the global division of labor, countries like China make things, earn money, and lend that money to the U.S. Government. Washington, for its part, provides "security" in the form of wars, occupations, and other acts of mass destruction.


Barnett wrote an entire book -- The Pentagon's New Map -- based on that the assumption that this arrangement would define world affairs for at least the next several decades. The news that America's creditors aren't going to permit Washington to continue with its oddly impecunious imperialism was no more surprising than the revelation that Barnett is a crack-pot rather than an oracle.


Officials in all of the relevant countries hastily disavowed Fisk's report. This didn't prevent a flight to gold. In fact, the frantic efforts to sustain the fiction that the dollar is in any sense a store of value probably amplified the rush to gold, in the same sense that subjects of the Soviet state didn't believe tales of official corruption and abuse until they had been officially denied.


Washington's courtiers in the "respectable" media characterized the developments described by Fisk as a "plot" against the dollar, or a "sneak attack" against Washington's economic hegemony.


Oh, those damned Arabs -- how dare they want something of actual value in exchange for the world's most coveted commodity! Those devious Chinese -- by what right would they stop underwriting Washington's debt?


Strangely enough, none of those assailing the Arabs and Chinese for backing away from the dollar have seen fit to condemn the individual who actually recommended this course of action roughly a year and a half ago: Alan "Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse" Greenspan.


As I noted at the time (see "Our Money's No Good Here," February 25, 2008), during a conference of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, Greenspan -- the indispensable architect of the ongoing global depression -- urged the Arabs and their allies to abandon the dollar whose value Greenspan had done so much to destroy.


Since the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, the dollar has lost 96 percent of its purchasing power. The fact that the dollar can be used to purchase anything of value is an abiding testimony to the power of official myths to contort the thinking process of human beings en masse.


There is nothing behind the dollar apart from the "full faith and credit" of the world's most powerful criminal syndicate -- well, that, and the willingness of oil-producing states to accept the dollar in exchange for petroleum. Cut that last lifeline, and there is nothing to impede the dollar's immediate fall into utter uselessness.


I find myself reminded of the old joke about an astrophysicist who is accosted after a public lecture by a crusty old man of decidedly pre-Copernican views of the universe.


"You seem like a very bright young fellow," the old man begins, seasoning his words with condescension he wasn't entitled to express, "but you've got it all wrong. You see, the earth is actually carried on the back of a giant turtle. That's the simple truth."


"But what supports that turtle?" inquires the astrophysicist with a mixture of amusement and annoyance."


"Why, another turtle, of course!" ripostes the old man.


"And what --" begins the increasingly irritated scholar, before being cut off.


"You're a clever fellow, but it won't work!" exclaims the old man. "It's turtles all the way down!"


Commissar Bernanke and other guardians of official monetary superstition are committed to preserving the delusion that prosperity can be sustained on the back of a currency that is backed by nothing but itself. It's dollars all the way down -- an infinite regression into worthlessness. And, pace the plans of the anti-dollar coalition described by Fisk, the descent shouldn't take nine years.


The term "apocalypse" refers to an unveiling, a revelation, a dramatic disclosure. We're in the early stages of a dollar apocalypse -- a process that will expose the Greenback as a fraud. Already we're seeing portents of what America will look like as the unveiling continues.


Detroit, once the paradigm of America's industrial power, has become an economic moonscape. More than half the population lives below the poverty level; unemployment is nearing 29 percent, and grass is literally growing in the streets of some neighborhoods. Unburied bodies are accumulating in the county morgue because nobody has sufficient funds for interment or cremation.


A few days ago, tens of thousands of desperate Detroit residents besieged the Cobo Center in the hope of receiving housing assistance vouchers provided by the federal government. Within less than three minutes, 25,000 applications were filled out for 3,500 available vouchers.

***

***

Amid the scuffles, tramplings, death threats, and other incidental violence, a telling example of the self-replicating fraud of our monetary system could be seen. The Detroit News reports:

"After the applications ran out, some scam artists were selling photocopies of the originals for $20 each. They were doing a brisk business, even though the white original forms state clearly on the bottom: `Do not duplicate -- Must Submit Original Application.' Volunteers from the city of Detroit Planning and Development Department eventually handed out yellow photocopies themselves."

Coercion and redistribution: Detroit residents fill out welfare voucher applications on the hood of a police car.

Here we can see the terminally corrupt financial system in tragic microcosm.

The Feds, through the miracle of deficit spending financed through inflation, issue vouchers to substitute for the regime's worthless legal tender.

Some local scam artists exploit the desperation of the destitute by producing worthless counterfeits of the vouchers and charging for them.

Rather than punishing the criminals who created and sold those worthless documents -- call them voucher "derivatives" -- government officials simply make that scam official policy on the assumption that other people somewhere will absorb the costs. This is the same mechanism used to bail out the corporatist welfare whores of Wall Street, just on a much more limited scale. The biggest difference, of course, is that while most of the welfare applicants in Detroit were left with worthless applications, the welfare whores on Wall Street were spared such disappointment.

It's fiat "money" and criminal fraud all the way down. How far does "down" go? We're going to find out.

Be sure to listen to Pro Libertate Radio on the Liberty News Radio Network every weekday from 6:00-7:00 PM Mountain Time (7:00-8:00 PM Central).

Dum spiro, pugno!

The Hardin Saga: Waiting for the Punchline

(All Hardin photos by Scott Watson, except where noted.)


A lovely town, a nasty predicament: Thanks to the less-than-visionary "leadership" of its municipal government, the friendly residents of the beautiful town of Hardin, Montana are burdened with $27 million in debt for a huge, empty prison and a business deal with a shadowy mercenary group fronted by a convicted felon.


Hardin, Montana -- In his memoir Against All Hope, former Cuban political prisoner Armando Valladares tells the story of a Cuban ruler who built a huge prison, a structure several times larger than necessary to incarcerate the island's criminal population.


When he was chastised by an adviser for spending a considerable sum on a prison too big to use, the dictator smiled and replied: Don't worry, someday a ruler will come along who will fill it up.


The "someone" predicted by that ruler was Fidel Castro.


Just inside the city limits of Hardin, Montana (pop. 3,500), next to an IGA grocery store and not far from a sugar plant, there sits a huge, empty "jail" -- actually, a small prison -- that cost $27 million to construct. Driven to desperation as its construction bonds went into default, the city government, acting through its economic development arm, the Two Rivers Authority (TRA), offered last March to accept prisoners from the Gitmo detention camp.


Who's going to fill it up? The empty Two Rivers Detention Facility in Hardin, which became a minor tourist attraction last week.


That offer piqued the interest of some yet-unnamed people in California, who chartered a security pseudo-firm calling itself the American Police Force (APF).


The figurehead of that ersatz mercenary outfit is a diminutive Montenegrin Serb known by several aliases, most recently "Captain" Michael Hilton.


Although he originally claimed to have extensive military experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, "Captain" Hilton -- a convicted felon and veteran scam artist -- eventually admitted that he had no military experience; this means he's a "captain" in roughly the same sense that Captain Crunch is worthy of the honorific.


Last summer Hardin's TRA reportedly entered into an agreement with APF to operate the jail for a fee of $2.6 million annually. TRA also promised to spend even larger sums to expand the detention center; they also announced plans to build an international training center for law enforcement and military personnel, as well as to construct housing for the personnel who would soon supposedly besiege the economically depressed town. The company also promised to provide a bounty of other civic assets, including a homeless shelter -- despite the fact that Hardin is a small town with no homeless population.


While discussions over management of the jail (more aptly called a prison) were going on, a second and possibly related process was nearing its conclusion.

Two views of "Captain" Hilton: Here he poses as head of the APF...

(Billings Gazette photo)


Since 1976, Hardin has had a contract with the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office (which is headquartered in the town) to provide law enforcement coverage.


In recent years, the sheriff's office has complained that the city government wasn't providing sufficient resources to provide services for Hardin while simultaneously covering a very large territory.


Accordingly, the city and sheriff's office have been negotiating a "deconsolidation" agreement, under which the contract with the sheriff's office would be terminated, and Hardin would provide its own police force.


... and here's the "Captain" in a 2003 booking photo taken by the Huntington Beach Police Department.

(Via the Billings Gazette.)


Just as the "deconsolidation" negotiations were nearly finished, "Captain" Hilton and another APF personality styling himself "Sergeant" Martin came rolling into town in two black Mercedes SUVs sporting magnetic decals advertising themselves as the "City of Hardin Police Department."


This naturally led to speculation, both locally and -- via the internet -- nationally and beyond, that the APF, a mercenary outfit led by an odd little man with a thick Slavic accent, was taking over law enforcement in Hardin.


In an interview with Pro Libertate, Big Horn County Undersheriff Rondell Davis -- a candid and thoroughly professional young man who arrived in Hardin about a year and a half ago -- pointed out that the APF had violated both the Montana State Code and state constitution by depicting themselves as Hardin's new police force.


Davis described the convergence of APF's arrival and the soon-to-be-completed deconsolidation talks as a "coincidence." "If Hardin wants to set up its own police force, and can find the resources to fund it," he said, "that's fine." The APF, however, obviously wasn't suitable for the job.


"If this outfit had been legitimate, the first thing they did when they came to town would have been to have a town meeting to introduce themselves, explain who they were and what they were going to do, and take questions," Davis observed. Instead, the group -- which, as far as anybody knows, includes only "Captain" Hilton and "Sergeant" Martin -- emitted a dense fog of extravagant promises while being cryptic and disingenuous in dealing with questions about its parent company, activities, personnel, assets, and qualifications, if any.


Interestingly, Undersheriff Davis described Hardin as a town with little-to-no violent crime. The most persistent problem, he pointed out, was dealing with people who have a bit too much to drink -- an assessment validated by a quick glance at the arrest reports published in the town's weekly newspaper, the Big Horn County News.


A welcome Throwback: He's a young man, but Big Horn County Undersheriff Rondell Davis is a candid, personable, low-key peace officer of the Old School. On the desk in front of him, incidentally, could be found materials provided to him by the Oath Keepers.


When he spoke with Pro Libertate, Davis was preparing for a Friday night during which he would provide backup for the single deputy assigned to patrol the entire county.

During a long walk late that evening in which I explored the length and breadth of the town, I saw nothing to indicate that there was a crime problem of any kind in Hardin.


The only sign of potential trouble I encountered was a small knot of visibly drunken young people -- several Indian youth from the local Crow Reservation in the company of a few local non-Indians -- outside a local convenience store. The "ringleader" of the group, a tall kid who appeared to be about 22 years old, reacted to the arrival of a stranger by offering me a friendly fist-bump.

What's up with this? Your correspondent at the entrance of the much-discussed Two Rivers Detention Facility.


During that nocturnal excursion, as well as a second one undertaken the following morning, I also failed to find any evidence that Hardin was being turned into a garrison state.


Contrary to reports given wide cyber-circulation, there was no portcullis being constructed at either end of the town.


Armed commandos said to be patrolling the streets failed to materialize. Nor was there any indication that people were being disarmed by foreign troops, or rounded up for incarceration and compelled injections of the legitimately dreadful H1N1 vaccine. As was the case with many others, the situation in Hardin came to my attention by way of an anonymous e-mail account that portrayed the town as an open-air prison quite similar to the totalitarian community described in Out of the Gray Zone, the terrific recent novel written by the estimable team of Claire Wolfe and Aaron Zelman.


My reaction, which I shared with those who listen to my weekday radio broadcast, was to suggest that there might be a nucleus of disturbing truth inside the accretions of alarmist speculation and apocalyptic embellishment. That much is certainly true, as I'll discuss anon.


I want to emphasize that some of the speculation was, up to a point, entirely justified, given the grandiose claims made by the APF and the clinically demented credulity of the Hardin municipal government:


Where did people get the idea that the group calling itself the "American Police Force" was going to be patrolling the mean street(s) of Hardin?


This idea came directly from the mouth of "Captain" Hilton himself.


As quoted in the September 17 Big Horn County News, Hilton (we'll use that surname for the sake of convenience) boasted of his group's purported manpower, assets, and experience in providing security for cruise ships, airliners, and convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Hilton then asserted that the group could draw on the services of "contractors" from around the world to provide Hardin with a security force. "Hardin will be the safest place in the United States to live, and in six months the best place to live," Hilton insisted.


If I may be forgiven for employing the cliche, Hilton was carrying coals to Newcastle: Hardin already is an exceptionally safe place to live, in large measure because that town, like most others in Montana, is populated by people who own and know how to use firearms.


Of particular interest in this connection is the fact that Hilton's proposal to use APF as a city police force was repeated at face value, and with considerable enthusiasm, by Jim Eshleman, a reporter and photographer for the Big Horn County News, in a September 24 column assailing APF's local critics and defending the organization's compulsive secrecy.


"Having spoken with a representative from the American Police Force I was told on a number of occasions that Hardin will be the safest town in the United States and in six months will be the best place to live in the United States," regurgitated Eshleman.


Besides, who could complain about turning over control of the town to a secretive, unaccountable paramilitary group as long as their checks clear?


"As far as I'm concerned, if a little secrecy means good, high-paying jobs and an economic boost to the city, then I say go for it," insisted Eshleman. "There is no reason to do anything that might put the project into jeopardy.... [I]n spite of the secrecy, it's in the best interests of the community that we partner with the American Police Force and work together for the economic good of not only Hardin, but of Big Horn County and the Crow Reservation."

Charming.


If Hardin were faced with the prospect of conquest by a sentient race of alien space ants, Eshleman would likely publish a column welcoming the town's new insect overlords and reminding them that, as a trusted local media personality, he could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.


Given that Hilton's claim was given wide circulation, and prominently endorsed by a local representative of the "respectable" media, it isn't surprising that rumors began to proliferate that Hardin was either preparing to give APF the run of the town, or that APF had already dispatched battle-hardened paramilitary operators to police the streets.


How did the notion arise that the APF had brought foreign troops to Hardin?


Again, the fons et origo of this rumor was none other than the illustrious "Captain" Hilton.


"APF is going to be bringing in high-level military and police to train," claimed Hilton, as reported in the September 24 Big Horn County News. "Twenty-five percent from America and seventy-five percent international top military leaders from around the world."


Also noteworthy was Hilton's bogus boast that APF had been "running international detention facilities since it was incorporated in 1984." This statement, though entirely false, probably contributed to speculation about foreign prison guards being imported to staff the Two Rivers Detention Facility. And that speculation was fortified by Hilton's claim that the cost of maintaining the military/police training facility would be paid either by "the international community ... or the U.S. government."


How on earth did people come to the conclusion that Hardin residents would be rounded up and compelled to undergo flu vaccinations?


An October 1 Associated Press report quoted Hilton as promising to "dispatch security to patrol Hardin's streets" and also that he had offered "free health care to city residents out of the jail's clinic." This seems to be the acorn that grew into a mighty oak of misinformation regarding round-ups of recalcitrant residents for compelled injections.


It's worth remembering that all of these claims were made at a time when the Hardin city government was talking about creating its own police force -- and the APF rolled into town advertising itself as the "City of Hardin Police Department." Add a large dose of impenetrable secrecy, stir lightly, and the result is a casserole of rumors and innuendo lightly seasoned with fact.


The Hardin city government fled the scene once media attention was focused on its deal with the Goniff Michael Hilton. When Pro Libertate visited Hardin municipal offices on October 2, we were told by a very nice woman working as a cashier at the utilities office that the City Council were in "meetings." If those meetings took place, they occurred somewhere other than City Hall, which was locked down tight at 3:28 PM on a Friday afternoon.


Mayor Ron Adams was nowhere to be found. Greg Smith, executive director of the TRA, and his wife, mayoral candidate Kerri Smith, had likewise disappeared.


"Captain" Hilton headed back to California on October 1, promising to return a few days later to preside over a "job fair."


Becky Shay, the former Billings Gazette reporter hired as a spokesperson for APF, likewise left town. The only people connected in any way to the APF or the prison with whom I was able to speak were two people hired to clean the facility. When I spoke with them just outside the prison's front gate they seemed eager to be finished with the job and anxious regarding the question of whether their check would clear.


During a press conference in Billings, after deflecting several questions and making the robustly implausible claim that APF "welcomed" a fraud investigation by the Montana Attorney General, Shay broke down in tears claiming that she feared that her life was imperiled -- not by the felon running the fraudulent company she was hired to front, but by that company's critics.


On Saturday morning (October 3), the Gazette reported that Allied Defense Systems, an authentic military contractor that had supposedly agreed to provide uniforms for APF prison guards, announced that it had sent a letter to Hilton threatening a lawsuit over the use of the company's name.


Maziar Mafi, the Santa Ana attorney who acted as "legal affairs director" for APF, was suspending his involvement with the group. This he did despite the fact that Michael Hilton generously conferred on Mafi the rank of "captain" in the APF, which appears to consist entirely of two "captains" and a "sergeant."


Mafi's sudden disenchantment with the group may have something to do with the fact that APF had missed the first payment on the black SUVs it had used to make its grand entrance into Hardin. Mafi was the one who had co-signed the loan to buy the vehicles. Becky Shay, who has already suffered a great deal in exchange for a promised $60,000 annual salary, an APF-provided black Mercedes SUV, and a new, APF-provided home, most likely will receive a visit from a repo man in the near future.


With Hilton's scam falling apart as quickly as a Ritz cracker in hydrogen peroxide, it's likely that Hardin's taxpayers will end up being fed some substantial portion of the $27 million in rotten bonds issued to pay for the construction of the Two Rivers prison. But somebody will end up owning that huge, empty prison.


This brings me to a couple of important questions that have yet to be answered. First, who provided the money behind Hilton's little con game? Second, what was Hilton or his sponsor going to get out of conning the Hardin city government?


The point of a con, of course, is to get something, rather than to give something. Hilton promised a great deal, but unless he received as-yet undisclosed cash payments or other blandishments from the TRA, it's difficult to see how he would profit from his deception. This wouldn't be the case, however, if he was working on behalf of somebody with an interest other than financial enrichment.


There remains a possibility that somebody acting with malign intentions wanted to acquire that prison -- and it's also possible that the same individual or group could run a more competent version of this scam in some other economically depressed town that turns to incarceration as a new source of revenue.


"We're just a big joke," complained a sad-eyed but sweet middle-aged waitress the morning of our departure from Hardin. No, it's your municipal government that's made itself look ludicrous, I insisted.


The chief unanswered question is this: If the APF affair is a joke, then what's the punchline? Who is going to fill up Hardin's empty prison?


For additional coverage of the Hardin controversy, go here for my first radio program on the subject, and here for my live report from Hardin. And watch for a video report that will be available soon.
___

(My sincere thanks to my good friend Scott Watson for his invaluable help on this story.)



Be sure to tune in weekdays from 6:00-7:00 Mountain Time for Pro Libertate Radio on the Liberty News Radio Network.











Dum spiro, pugno!

Martial Law Is Their Business, And Business Sure Is Swell (SPECIAL UPDATE, 10/2)

The "dream" realized: The Two Rivers Detention Facility, the proudest achievement of Hardin, Montana's political class. Sure, it's empty now, but I'm sure those nice men in the black SUVs can do something about that....


UPDATE, October 2

Hardin, Montana -- For an on-the-scene report on developments in the Hardin scandal, please go to LibertyNewsRadio.com and listen to this evening's program. I'll have a more detailed report here on Pro Libertate as soon as feasible.






If you build it, they will come.


That would appear to be the business plan of an enigmatic California company called American Police Force (APF), which appears to be effectively taking over the town of Hardin, Montana.


The "it" in question is a large jail facility outside Hardin, Montana, that was built several years ago but thus far remains unused. "They" refers to prisoners to fill said jail -- a 114,000 square foot, 464-bed facility. APF has yet to become firmly established in Hardin (pop. 3,400), but the company's representatives are confident "the place [meaning the jail] would start filling up by 2010."


At present, the firm is said to be doing "market research," an ominous prospect, given that it's in the business of detention. And it has even spoken about the possibility of expanding the jail within a few years.


Say, that is good news -- at least for the people on AFP's payroll. Since last Thursday, when company personnel rolled into town in a convoy of black Mercedes SUVs embossed with seals advertising a non-existent "City of Hardin Police Department,"the company's payroll has increased by at least one, and possibly two, key local figures.


The first to be snapped up was Becky Shay, a former Billings Gazette reporter whose beat included the Hardin jail. Within a day of AFP's arrival, she was hired away from the paper to serve as a $60,000-a-year spokesperson for the company (a pretty hefty salary increase for a local reporter in Montana). So quickly and slickly was this career change made that Shay's editor didn't even know she had talked with AFP about the position.


Yes, that logo just screams "America!" to me: There's nothing like the combination of a crown and a double-headed imperial eagle to summon the memory of the Revolutionary War patriots who fought to free themselves from an imperial monarch. Hey, wait a minute....


Also in "discussions" with AFP is Kerri Smith, a finalist in Hardin's mayoral race and wife of Greg Smith, Executive Director of the Two Rivers Authority (TRA). The TRA is Hardin's economic development agency, which issued $27 million in bonds to build the jail as a public works project.


In what must be the most ill-conceived piece of civic boosterism ever to assault my senses, the TRA's webpage presents the Hardin jail -- that's a structure intended to deprive people of their freedom, remember -- as the poetic expression of a cherished dream: A YouTube video proudly displays slides of the jail set to the unbearable strains of Russell Watson's wretched ballad "Faith of the Heart" (the musical accompaniment is heard on the TRA's "Detention Center" webpage):

*** ***

Yes, there's nothing quite like an effeminate power ballad to capture the pure aesthetic grace of a detention camp ringed by barbed wire.


Apparently, the "long road" to building that jail didn't end in prosperity. Since the finished jail has remained empty, the bonds have gone into default. At one point, Hardin's city government indicated it would accept relocated detainees from Gitmo; this prompted a legal battle between the city and the Montana state government.


Yeah, these guys look legit: What could possibly go wrong here?



Last March, AFP was incorporated in California. Shortly thereafter it began talks with Hardin city officials and the TRA.


City officials eventually announced an agreement with the mysterious firm that would bring in $2.6 million for use of the jail, in addition to an "investment" of $23 million to build a new training facility for military and police (which are assumed to be part of one integrated coercive apparatus, of course) on the same TRA-owned property.


The deal -- which was publicly announced although the specifics were never publicly disclosed -- is supposedly a cornucopia of civic benefits: New computers for the schools; a homeless shelter; a fleet of Mercedes patrol cars for the envisioned city police force; donations to the local food pantry; an animal shelter; gold-plated fixtures for the Mayor's executive washroom. OK, I made that last one up. I think.

Have you seen this man? Greg Smith, Executive Director of Hardin's Two Rivers Authority, negotiated a deal to turn over his town to what appeared to be a Blackwater front group, then made himself scarce.


TRA Executive Director Greg Smith, whose wife is in discussions for a position with AFP, helped negotiate the deal. Immediately after it was finished, he was put on "administrative leave," and went to ground. (Calls from Pro Libertate to Mr. Smith's number at the TRA were not returned.)


What appears to be happening here -- and until relevant details are pried out of the prehensile grip of the people running things, we can't know for sure -- is nothing less than a corporatist-style military coup: the takeover of a small town in Montana by a politically connected, federally subsidized paramilitary organization.

They're talking, but saying nothing: APF spokeswoman Becky Shay (left) and corporate official "Captain" Michael Hilton.



At a press conference a few days ago, Becky Shay grandly announced that "The decision is the name of the parent company will not be released."


Suspicions were immediately aroused that APF is a tentacle of the corporatist mercenary company formerly known as Blackwater, but now doing business under the odd name Xe (pronounced "Zee"). However, a press spokeswoman for Xe informed Pro Libertate that "We have no connection to that company, and had never heard of it" prior to recent developments in Montana.


Hardin may well be the first of many economically devastated communities to be given a lifeline by the burgeoning military-homeland security-prison-industrial complex. Lifelines of that kind can quickly become nooses.

(Watch this space for more details as they become available....)


UPDATE: Is the Balloon Going Up -- or is the Curtain Rising on a Farce?


My first reaction when I read a write-up of recent events in Hardin was that it was a retread of every "Blue Scare" story I had dealt with more than a decade and a half ago as a researcher at The New American magazine. (Here's a link to the radio program I did on Monday in which I first addressed the developments in Hardin.)


Right up until the OKC bombing there was a steady stream of alarmist rumors -- many of them provoked by events at Waco and Ruby Ridge -- of various paramilitary forces gathering in obscure, distant locations to wreak havoc on innocent people. Often the accounts would include vague but insistent references to the involvement of foreign troops wearing UN insignia (hence the expression "Blue Scare" as a generic description).


What made those stories credible at all was the fact that the government ruling us had displayed an uncanny ability to exceed our lowest expectations. There's certainly an element of that at work regarding the Hardin story: The militarization of law enforcement is a documentable menace, as is the increasing impunity with which police inflict lethal or near-lethal violence on innocent citizens. The preparations for outright military rule are likewise very real, and disturbing.


Still, there is something utterly surreal about the Hardin case; it's as if some kind of martial law melodrama were being played out as an enhanced "reality" program -- something like Red Dawn meets Jericho with a touch of the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast added for good measure.


As much as it would pain me to have been played in this fashion, I'm hoping that's what we're dealing with here. In any case, I intend to visit Hardin, find out what I can, and publish what I learn. Perhaps by then this whole thing will have proven to be an elaborate version of "Punk'd." We'll soon see....

One last thought.

Shortly before the brilliant and principled people* running The New American decided they'd be better off without my services, I wrote a piece in which I made the following prediction:


"[E]ver-mounting debt, the impending collapse of the dollar, and the unfolding garrison state--could lead to some exceptionally unpleasant outcomes. For instance: it is possible that someday in the not too distant future a foreign interest like China, Russia, or Saudi Arabia could be in charge of our prison system....

Foreign lenders are preparing to buy our country out from underneath us, taking advantage of the dollar's decline and the desperation of cash-strapped state and local governments. Notes a recent USA Today front page story: "States and local governments across the USA are preparing to cash in valuable public assets for one-time windfalls that could reap tens of billions of dollars. The deals would let governments collect billions of extra dollars without raising taxes but would reduce their future revenue."

Highways, airports, state student-loan portfolios, sewer systems, state-run lotteries--all of these are being put up for sale. Could jails and prisons be put on the auction block, as well--as post-9/11 America takes an ominous turn in the direction of a police state? With more than two million residing behind bars in the United States, and states and municipalities increasingly turning to private, for-profit entities to run these facilities, the possibility really can't be dismissed outright. Beijing, Moscow, and Riyadh all have large dollar reserves and a lot of experience in the field of incarceration. This scenario is just one of several ugly possibilities arising from our present circumstances. "


("21st Century Feudalism," TNA, August 7, 2006; don't look for it on the magazine's website, since the folks in charge are busy scrubbing it of any evidence that someone named William Norman Grigg once wrote for that publication).


Assuming that the American Police Force isn't some kind of farcical reality theater road troupe, there's reason to believe its parent company has connections with some interesting people in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Once again, I'll keep looking, so please keep reading.


Second Update: Should We Call Him "Captain" Harold Hill?


Here's a significant piece of background info on "Captain Michael Hilton," the Montenegrin Mountebank running AFP:

[...] [W]hen Hilton came to town last week — wearing a military-style uniform and offering three Mercedes SUVs for use by local law enforcement — he was greeted with hugs by some grateful residents. The promise of more than 200 new jobs for a community struggling long before the recession hit had won them over.

But public documents and interviews with Hilton's associates and legal adversaries offer a different picture, that of a convicted felon with a number of aliases, a string of legal judgments against him, two bankruptcies and a decades-long reputation for deals gone bad.

American Police Force is the company Hilton formed in March to take over the Hardin jail.

"Such schemes you cannot believe," said Joseph Carella, an Orange County, Calif. doctor and co-defendant with Hilton in a real estate fraud case that resulted in a civil judgment against Hilton and several others.

"The guy's brilliant. If he had been able to do honest work, he probably would have been a gazillionaire," Carella said.

Court documents show Hilton has outstanding judgments against him in three civil cases totaling more than $1.1 million.

As for Hilton's military expertise, including his claim to have advised forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, those interviewed knew of no such feats. Instead, Hilton was described alternately by those who know him as an arts dealer, cook, restaurant owner, land developer, loan broker and car salesman — always with a moneymaking scheme in the works.

Hilton did not return several calls seeking comment. American Police Force attorney Maziar Mafi referred questions to company spokeswoman Becky Shay.

When asked about court records detailing Hilton's past, Shay replied, "The documents speak for themselves. If anyone has found public documents, the documents are what they are."

Shay declined comment on Hilton's military experience....

Hilton, 55, uses the title "captain" when introducing himself and on his business cards. But he acknowledged it was not a military rank.

He said he is naturalized U.S. citizen and native of Montenegro. Aliases for Hilton that appear in court documents include Miodrag Dokovich, Michael Hamilton, Hristian Djokich and Michael Djokovich.

One attorney who dealt with Hilton in a fraud lawsuit referred to him as a "chameleon" and he has a reputation for winning people over with his charm.

His criminal record goes back to at least 1988, when Hilton was arrested in Santa Ana, Calif. for writing bad checks.

Beginning in 1993, Hilton spent six years in prison in California on a dozen counts of grand theft and other charges including illegal diversion of construction funds.

The charges included stealing $20,000 in a real estate swindle in which Hilton convinced an associate to give him a deed on property in Long Beach, Calif., ostensibly as collateral on a loan. Hilton turned around and sold the property to another party but was caught when the buyer contacted the original owner.

After his release, he got entangled in at least three civil lawsuits alleging fraud or misrepresentation. Those included luring investors to sink money into gold and silver collectible coins; posing as a fine arts dealer in Utah in order to convince a co uple to give him a $100,000 silver statue; and, in the case involving co-defendant Carella, seeking investors for an assisted living complex in Southern California that was never built.

Carella said he was duped into becoming a partner in the development project and that Hilton used Carella's status as a physician to lure others into the scheme. He was described in court testimony as a "pawn" used by Hilton to lure investors.

Those involved with Hilton say he is an accomplished cook with a flair for the extravagant — wining and dining potential partners, showing up at the Utah couple's house to negotiate for the silver statue in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

"This is the way we got taken," said Carolyn Call of Provo, Utah, who said she gave Hilton her family's silver statue to sell on the open market.

According to court documents, Hilton turned around and gave the statue to an attorney to pay for his services.

Two California attorneys said Wednesday that after learning of Hilton's latest activities they planned to follow him to Montana to seek payment on the outstanding judgments against him.

"Once I know that there is an asset or some sort of funds to go after, we'll go after it," said Call's attorney, Roger Naghash.


This doesn't answer everything, but it does suggest that we can stand down from General Quarters -- even though we should still keep our powder dry, as it were.


I think it's appropriate, once again, to refer to my radio program from Monday night in which I first dealt with the news out of Hardin.


(Thanks to "piglipstick" for the link.)

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*Need I say that I was being sarcastic?




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Dum spiro, pugno!