In a recent interview with Jason Bermas, Russia Today’s Kristine Frazao discussed the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office is getting an “indefinite delivery” of an “indefinite quantity” of .40 caliber ammunition from defense contractor ATK.
This enormous purchase, made not by the military but the DHS itself does not bode well. DHS claims that these bullets will be used for practice shooting. Bermas commented, “Then why do they need hollow point bullets?”—the points collapsing around the bullet do as much damage as is humanly possible to the human body. In technical terms, it’s for “optimum penetration for terminal performance.” In short, they are to maim and kill in combat. So let’s diffuse the “practice” ruse.
This acquisition has been going on quietly and for awhile in preparation, one can assume, by the paranoia-producing DHS of a public insurrection and being ready to defend Americans from themselves. It is amazing that with sequestration taking place, and with items like healthcare, armed forces personnel, veteran care, child care, entitlements, etc.1, suffering funding cuts, They Seem not to have touched this purchase and/or DHS’s budget for 2014 of $39 billion in net discretionary funding. DHS’s initial 2011 budget allocation was $98.8 billion. Of that it spent $66.9 billion. I hear the sucking sound of money into some dark op in the void.
For instance, the last head of DHS, before Janet Napolitano, was Michael Chertoff. A dual Israeli/American citizen, Chertoff led the renewed push for the controversial, clothes-penetrating, full body, Xray scanners at airports. In fact, even as a former homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff’s consulting firm represents companies who make the scanners. But you wouldn’t know it from reading the papers. Or you might, if your eyes are open for political scamming of public funds, a habit Ms. Napolitano seems to have acquired.
An additional $5.6 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is provided separately, pursuant to the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). That’s quite a security blanket smothering the U.S. budget. Again, U.S. agents (no specifics provided) will receive a maximum of 450 million rounds over five years, according to a press release on the deal. Did you say deal? What does the average U.S. taxpayer get in this deal in return from taxes on his or her hard-earned wages? Hopefully, it’s not more “airport security” and cancer-causing body scanners. It’s more the likes of what follows . . .
The high performance HST bullets are designed for law enforcement, and ATK says the bullets offer “hollow-points that pass through barriers and expand for a bigger impact without the rest of the bullet getting warped out of shape: “this bullet holds its jacket in the toughest conditions.” Well, kiss my trigger finger. Who would want anything less than that? Certainly not all our remaining Adam Lanzas, Boston Bombers and their ilk. But there’s more.
We’ve also learned that the department has an open bid for a stockpile of rifle ammo. Listed on the federal business opportunities network, they’re looking for up to 175 million rounds of .223 caliber ammo to be exact. The .223 is almost exactly the same round used by NATO forces, the 5.56 x 45mm. Is this insanity or sheer savagery? 175 million rounds of .224 caliber ammo? Plus the 450 million rounds of hollow-points! Welcome to the world’s largest shooting gallery: America, home of the brave, land of the guns and ammo freaks.
The deadline for earlier this month was extended because the right contractor just hadn’t come along. What a shame. Nevertheless, it looks like the Department of Homeland Security means business. And business it is, the dirtiest kind you can think of, the sucking of funds for peaceful priorities to this warped extension of the military industrial complex, the Department of Homeland Insecurity.
The larger issue is that as the president and the majority of American people cry out for assault weapons control and smaller magazines for ammunition. the Department of Homeland Security no less contradicting the will of the people and the direct request of the president. This creates a certain feeling of insecurity as to who really is in charge of this country and what their real objectives are.
Make no mistake. These bullets are intended for militarized police departments, SWAT teams, and/or privatized surveillance forces working for the DHS. And their intention, as you must have seen in Boston, was a brutal show of force to scare the hell out of everyday people with a “shelter in place” lockdown, i.e., martial law, and house-to-house searches. The irony here is that everyday people are exactly whom the DHS should be looking after. But that is the fundamental contradiction in what policing means these days. And the appeal of all this ammunition for DHS can be summed up in one word: INTIMIDATION.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
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What’s the Department of Homeland Security going to do with 450 million bullets?
Posted on May 3, 2013 by Jerry Mazza
In a recent interview with Jason Bermas, Russia Today’s Kristine Frazao discussed the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office is getting an “indefinite delivery” of an “indefinite quantity” of .40 caliber ammunition from defense contractor ATK.
This enormous purchase, made not by the military but the DHS itself does not bode well. DHS claims that these bullets will be used for practice shooting. Bermas commented, “Then why do they need hollow point bullets?”—the points collapsing around the bullet do as much damage as is humanly possible to the human body. In technical terms, it’s for “optimum penetration for terminal performance.” In short, they are to maim and kill in combat. So let’s diffuse the “practice” ruse.
This acquisition has been going on quietly and for awhile in preparation, one can assume, by the paranoia-producing DHS of a public insurrection and being ready to defend Americans from themselves. It is amazing that with sequestration taking place, and with items like healthcare, armed forces personnel, veteran care, child care, entitlements, etc.1, suffering funding cuts, They Seem not to have touched this purchase and/or DHS’s budget for 2014 of $39 billion in net discretionary funding. DHS’s initial 2011 budget allocation was $98.8 billion. Of that it spent $66.9 billion. I hear the sucking sound of money into some dark op in the void.
For instance, the last head of DHS, before Janet Napolitano, was Michael Chertoff. A dual Israeli/American citizen, Chertoff led the renewed push for the controversial, clothes-penetrating, full body, Xray scanners at airports. In fact, even as a former homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff’s consulting firm represents companies who make the scanners. But you wouldn’t know it from reading the papers. Or you might, if your eyes are open for political scamming of public funds, a habit Ms. Napolitano seems to have acquired.
An additional $5.6 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is provided separately, pursuant to the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). That’s quite a security blanket smothering the U.S. budget. Again, U.S. agents (no specifics provided) will receive a maximum of 450 million rounds over five years, according to a press release on the deal. Did you say deal? What does the average U.S. taxpayer get in this deal in return from taxes on his or her hard-earned wages? Hopefully, it’s not more “airport security” and cancer-causing body scanners. It’s more the likes of what follows . . .
The high performance HST bullets are designed for law enforcement, and ATK says the bullets offer “hollow-points that pass through barriers and expand for a bigger impact without the rest of the bullet getting warped out of shape: “this bullet holds its jacket in the toughest conditions.” Well, kiss my trigger finger. Who would want anything less than that? Certainly not all our remaining Adam Lanzas, Boston Bombers and their ilk. But there’s more.
We’ve also learned that the department has an open bid for a stockpile of rifle ammo. Listed on the federal business opportunities network, they’re looking for up to 175 million rounds of .223 caliber ammo to be exact. The .223 is almost exactly the same round used by NATO forces, the 5.56 x 45mm. Is this insanity or sheer savagery? 175 million rounds of .224 caliber ammo? Plus the 450 million rounds of hollow-points! Welcome to the world’s largest shooting gallery: America, home of the brave, land of the guns and ammo freaks.
The deadline for earlier this month was extended because the right contractor just hadn’t come along. What a shame. Nevertheless, it looks like the Department of Homeland Security means business. And business it is, the dirtiest kind you can think of, the sucking of funds for peaceful priorities to this warped extension of the military industrial complex, the Department of Homeland Insecurity.
The larger issue is that as the president and the majority of American people cry out for assault weapons control and smaller magazines for ammunition. the Department of Homeland Security no less contradicting the will of the people and the direct request of the president. This creates a certain feeling of insecurity as to who really is in charge of this country and what their real objectives are.
Make no mistake. These bullets are intended for militarized police departments, SWAT teams, and/or privatized surveillance forces working for the DHS. And their intention, as you must have seen in Boston, was a brutal show of force to scare the hell out of everyday people with a “shelter in place” lockdown, i.e., martial law, and house-to-house searches. The irony here is that everyday people are exactly whom the DHS should be looking after. But that is the fundamental contradiction in what policing means these days. And the appeal of all this ammunition for DHS can be summed up in one word: INTIMIDATION.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.