On This Day Pre-Y2K
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February 16, 1999 Permalink
Texas Gov. George Bush says that any disputes between a small Texas town over local training by federal troops are between the small town and the federal troops.
Well, actually he probably knows nothing about it. Some PR flak in his office, who also seems to know nothing, brushed it off. We might call it a Bush brush job.
And, yes, Virginia, there really are black helicopters.
This is from WORLDNETDAILY (Feb. 16).
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Gov. George W. Bush, R-Texas, says it is not his job to get involved in the concerns over Army Night Stalkers using live ammunition in a civilian area of his state.
The Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has confirmed Operation Last Dance began in Kingsville Feb. 8 and has been continuing in other small towns near Corpus Christi.
Little warning was given to civilians in Kingsville prior to the event that has prompted some to seek crisis intervention counseling.
Angry citizens are now calling for the dismissal of the police chief and his assistant.
The exercise involved the elite forces of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment -- the Night Stalkers. A specially trained helicopter regiment stationed in both Fort Campbell, Kentucky and Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia.
Night Stalkers got their name because of their special training to fly just over tree tops at high speeds in the dark. They were on just such a training mission in Kingsville last week.
Eight black helicopters roared into town, with one nearly crashing as it hit the top of a telephone pole and started a fire near a residence. The soldiers on board staged a mock raid on two empty buildings, using real explosives and live ammunition in machine guns. The two-hour gun battle has residents and some officials furious -- and some scared to death by what they heard and saw.
Police Chief Felipe Garza and Mayor Phil Esquivel were the only city officials in Kingsville involved in approving the military training exercise. At least one other Texas Mayor turned the military away for a similar request and accused them of offering a bribe.
Both Garza and Esquivel have refused to provide details, insisting that they were sworn to secrecy by the Army.
Numerous attempts were made to find out the reaction of Bush. When WorldNetDaily contacted his office, aides were not aware of Operation Last Dance. On Monday an aide acknowledged that calls had been coming in about the event, but no statement had been issued by Bush.
Late on Monday a public relations spokeswoman called with a response.
“Apparently you need to contact Fort Bragg if you need more information about this,” she said. “Apparently in these types of exercises the Army goes through local law enforcement and local officials and not through the state.
“So this really isn’t an issue that would be dealt with by the governor’s office. We’re going to look into it further, but at this point all I can tell you is that you need to contact Fort Bragg for more information. According to the Army, they have notified local law enforcement in all the communities that they are doing these exercises in,” she told WorldNetDaily. . . .
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 02/16/99
