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                      IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE, CAN IT?
                        Scenario by Michael Errol

_Last year's Congressional investigation into the Irangate
scandal unearthed a decaying trove of secret government
operations and schemes masterminded by the Reagan Administration. 
The most disturbing of these was the so-called secret-government-
within-the-government, headed up by the National Security Agency
and effectively administered by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. 
Most harrowing among the secret government's projects was a
carefully drawn plan to suspend the U.S. Constitution and declare
martial law in case of a national emergency.  While this plan for
installing a home-brew military dictatorship received a brief
flurry of publicity, it was never followed up either by Congress
or the media._

The following is a scenario of just how that plan could
materialize in the near future.  Yes, this is speculative.  But
the measures described below are all taken directly from the
working papers drawn up by Colonel North and his cohorts. 
Welcome to the American Dream turned sour:

FEBRUARY 2, 1989: After less than a month in office, newly Seated
President Albert Gore faces his first international crisis. After
having received nearly $4 billion in US aid since 1980, the
government in El Salvador in on the verge of collapse. The
guerrilla offensive begun the previous November has succeeded in
the capture of the nation's second largest city, Santa Ana. With
the Salvadoran army crumbling, in spite of its being coached by
some 200 U.S. advisers, a general strike has broken out in the
capital of San Salvador.

The leaders of the insurgent unions vow they will keep the city
shut down until U.S.-supported President Jose Napoleon Duarte
cedes power to the guerrilla-labor coalition. President Duarte
appeals for outside aid, claiming his country is a victim of
"international communism."

FEBRUARY 3, 1989: President Gore convenes an emergency meeting of
his staff and cabinet to consider the Salvadoran crisis. Vice
President Paul Simon warns that the Democrat-controlled Congress
is in little mood for interventionism. He suggests the U.S. act
as intermediary to negotiate a graceful exit for Duarte, paving
the way for decent future relations with the leftist insurgents.
But Simon is countered by Defense Secretary Sam Nunn and
Secretary of State David McCurdy, who argue that Gore's newly
inaugurated administration "has to hold the line" in Central
America, and that it would be politically fatal to "lose" El
Salvador.

National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft further adds it is
"Communist Nicaragua" that is behind the destabilization of El
Salvador, and that to abandon Duarte now would be to show too
much vulnerability to the ?Soviet Union. After long hours of
debate, President gore opts for military support for the
Salvadoran government. Congressional leaders are called in well
past midnight and briefed on the Presidential decision.

FEBRUARY 4, 1989: White House Spokesman Chris Wallace formerly of
NBC News refuses to confirm or deny insistent reports that a
carrier battle group is steaming toward the Central American
coast, and that U.S. military units in Panama, Honduras and
Puerto Rico have been mobilized. Wallace does say that "President
Gore considers the survival of the Salvadoran government to be
vital to the interests of the Western world" News reports tell of
mounting chaos in the Salvadoran capital as rebel forces continue
to advance on San Salvador.       

FEBRUARY 6, 1999: At 10:03 a.m. EST network programming is
interrupted by a special White House broadcast. A somber-looking
President Gore, flanked by his National Security Adviser and his
Secretaries of Defense and State, reads a lengthy declaration:
Upon request of the Salvadoran leader Duarte, the Commander 'in
Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces-President Gore has dispatched an
"emergency force" of 13,000 U.S.Marines, backed by air and naval
cover, to EL Salvador to "protect our allied government against
internal subversion and external Communist aggression"

Gore informs the nation that as of 6 a.m. that morning, U.S.
Troops have engaged the Salvadoran rebel units and have reversed
the insurgent push on the capital. Other U.S. units have been
deployed in San Salvador itself. American troops based in
Honduras have also been rushed to the Nicaraguan border, and
warning has been given to the Sandinista government: Either
immediately desist in support of the Salvadoran rebels or face
U.S. reprisals.

President Gore assures Nicaragua that once the rebel onslaught
has been quashed. American troops will be withdrawn from EL
Salvador most likely within 90 days.

Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan government, fearing U.S. attacks,
issues its own call for international aid.

FEBRUARY 7,1989: ln its second day of emergency deliberation, a
special joint session of the U.S. Congress deadlocks over a
motion to institute the War Powers Act. The Republican Party,
with few exceptions, gives ecstatic support to the Democratic
President.

A group of Democratic liberals, led by Senators Kennedy and Dodd,
are outraged and want to impose a formal 90-day time limit on the
U.S. intervention in EL Salvador. But conservatives and moderates
in their own party argue it would be "disloyal" to undermine
American boys while they are still fighting in the field. The
President has split his own party and won over the opposition.
The military action will continue.

MARCH 1, 1989: The rebel move in Salvador has been slowed but not
stopped, the general strike only partially broken. With the
Salvadoran army in virtual collapse, U.S. troop levels in EL
Salvador have risen to 31000. American planes carry out regular
bombing runs against rebel strongholds in Morazan and Santa Ana.
Regular skirmishes between U.S. troops and Sandinista Popular
Army forces flare at the Nicaraguan border.

Cuba has air-bridged 50,000 troops into Manaugua to bolster
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's regime. In the first three
weeks of fighting in El Salvador, American casualties total 287
dead and 1,056 wounded. Defense Secretary Nunn denies a
Washington Post report that the military draft is to be
reactivated. Nunn expresses confidence that "our boys will be
home for summer vacation."

More than 40 U.S. campuses have been the scene of anti-
intervention demonstrations in the past two weeks. A national
protest march on Washington is called for April 1.

MARCH 28, 1989: Citing an alleged cross-border attack by
Nicaragua, President Gore orders a reprisal: U.S. jets
"surgically strike" oil depots on Nicaragua's Pacific coast.
Simultaneously, 20,000 U.S. Marines disembark on Nicaragua's ill-
defended Atlantic coast, effectively splitting the country into
Pacific and Atlantic halves. For the first time in nearly three
decades, American troops are about to directly engage Cuban
forces in the field.

A private diplomatic note from the Soviet Union, however,
dissuades the U.S. from a direct attack on the Cuban mainland.
Nicaraguan President Ortega orders arms distributed to his entire
civilian population and vows that "Nicaragua will fight the
Yankee invaders to the last man, with bombs, bullets, sticks and
stones"

President Gore addresses the nation by TV and assures the
American people that "the U.S. military action in Nicaragua is
aimed solely at blocking Sandinista support for the Salvadoran
Communists" After the speech, Gore calls in his National Security
Adviser and asks him to research contingency plans for dealing
with a massive negative domestic response.  

APRIL 1, 1989: The streets of Washington are filled with 650,000
protesters chanting, "EL Salvador is Spanish for Viet Nam!" and
"No More War! No More Gore!" Washington metro police, backed by
16,000 troops of the Maryland National Guard and regular U.S.
Army troops, clash with the increasingly unruly demonstrators who
are intent of blocking the main arteries of the capital. The
pushing and shoving, fueled by massive civil disobedience,
blossoms into chaotic rioting. Tear gas floods Pennsylvania
Avenue, and protesters begin "trashing" storefronts along
Connecticut Avenue. As night falls, angry students set up
makeshift barricades and fill the streets of Georgetown, battling
with riot police.

The drain on law enforcement in the city is met by unexpected
looting in Washington's sprawling black ghetto. Clashes between
security forces and protesters and blacks continue into the wee
hours. Two students and six blacks are killed by National Guard
fire; 47 others are wounded. Mayor Marion Berry declares a state
of emergency.

 APRIL 2 to 5, 1989: News of the Washington riots electrifies the
country's university campuses. A student general strike of a
magnitude not seen since Richard Nixon's 1970 invasion of
Cambodia sweeps t he country. Some 458 universities and colleges
are shut down by mobilized students and faculty. Rioting breaks
out in Berkeley. Madison, Phoenix, San Jose and a half dozen
other sites. At Harvard, Senator Kennedy is hooted off the stage
of a teach-in when he criticizes students for violent tactics.
The crowd surges into Cambridge and battles police for hours.

The pattern established in Washington begins to repeat itself. As
police and troops are drawn in to quell protesters, urban black
and Latino ghettos erupt after eight years of economic battering
by the previous administration. Midnight bombings shatter Army
recruitment offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. A
group calling itself the Tom Paine Patriotic Front (TPPF) takes
credit. A National Student Antiwar Coalition (NSAC) is forged at
a meeting at the University of Michigan. Plans arc announced to
disrupt all business as usual" until all U.S. troops are
withdrawn from EL Salvador and Nicaragua.

APRIL 6, 1989: President Gore orders an escalation of U.S.
fighting forces: 65,000 in EL Salvador, 59,500 in Nicaragua. A
declared state of emergency exists in all of California and
Wisconsin and in parts of 17 other states.

APRIL 8, 1989: A shocking setback for American forces in
Nicaragua. A U.S. military base in Puerto Cabezas, evidently
infiltrated by Sandinista sympathizers, is rocked by an early
morning truck-bomb explosion. Casualties total a staggering 408
dead and 100 wounded.

APRIL 9, 1989: Another emergency session of Congress. Support for
President Gore is eroding fast as civil order unravels in the
United States and as little progress is reported from the Central
American battlefields. Texas Representative Henry Gonzalez moves
a bill of impeachment against President Gore. It goes nowhere.
But the Dodd-Kennedy bill to cut off financing of the military
action under the terms of the War Powers Act begins to make
headway. A version of it passes the House by a 35-vote margin. In
the Senate, a right-wing filibuster is broken at 3 a.m., and a
half hour later the War Powers resolution carries by a 524 to 48
vote: All U.S. forces must be withdrawn from combat by July 9,
1989, unless a formal declaration of war is issued. Any extension
of unauthorized fighting beyond that date will result in the
President being declared in contempt of Congress.

APRIL 10 1989: A secret closed-door session in the White House
with the President, Vice President, inner cabinet, National
Security Adviser and the directors of the CIA, FBI and the INS.

A consensus prevails that the administration position is
difficult. against the backdrop of mounting, often violent
domestic unrest, American military objectives will be impossible
to obtain before the 90-day deadline imposed by Congress runs
out. Nor can it be expected that Congress would approve a
declaration of war. A sense of panic threatens the room until
National Security Adviser Scowcroft presents a plan drawn up in
1984 by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and former CIA director
William Casey to handle just such a national emergency. As the
details of the plan are spelled out, the meeting room is engulfed
in silence, the participants all too aware of the consequences of
the steps they are about to take. Agreement is reached that
implementation of the scheme-to be called Plan Djakarta-will be
carried out slowly and gradually so as to not create any panic.

APRIL 12, 1989: Blaming "Salvadoran Communist operatives" for the
spreading protests and disorder in the United States, Chief
Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Alan
Simpson, orders 'a temporary ban on the entry of all Central
Americans into the: United States. Orders are also given to all
Central Americans currently residing in the United States to
register themselves at lNS-approved community checkpoints within
the next 30 days or face immediate deportation. Refurbishing of
California desert detention camps used to house Japanese-
Americans during World War II quietly begins under heavy guard.

APRIL 14, 1989: At simultaneous press conferences in Washington,
Los Angeles and EL Paso a coalition of Latino and black community
groups, along with representatives of the American Civil
Liberties Union, charge that the INS is carrying out a "witch
hunt" against resident minorities. They say they will challenge
the INS demand to register all Central Americans with a
federal-court suit. The coalition says it will now endorse and
join in the next massive student-organized protest scheduled for
Washington and Los Angeles on June 1.

MAY 1, 1989: Thousands of May Day protesters in San Salvador
clash with U.S. occupation troops. Sixty-five demonstrators are
killed. A resolution condemning U.S. military intervention in EL
Salvador and Nicaragua passes the U.N. General Assembly with 138
votes in favor. The only three "nay" votes come from EL Salvador,
the Unite States and Israel.

MAY 15, 1989: American casualties in the two-front war now run at
2,017 dead and 6,153 wounded. Troop levels stand at 84,000 in El
Salvador and 102,000 in Nicaragua. A confidential CIA/Pentagon
estimate concludes that while the situation in Salvador has been
"stalemated:' thereby granting a reprieve to the Duarte
government, the position of U.S. forces in Nicaragua remains
"uncertain and unstable." The American troops have been "bogged
down" within a 200.mile radius of Puerto Cabezas and have been
"virtually paralyzed" by the unexpected ferocity of the joint
Nicaraguan-Cuban resistance. "To secure a substantial
breakthrough to the Pacific," the report concludes, "a minimum
U.S. government ground force of 450,000 troops will be required
by midsummer."

MAY 20, 1989: President Gore calls Congressional leaders to the
White House to test the waters for a declaration of war against
Nicaragua. He is firmly rebuffed.

MAY 21 to 25, 1989: Working through highly confidential and
secure communications channels, the President orders a greatly
accelerated troop mobilization both domestically and abroad.
Leaked reports pepper the press, hinting at the gear-up, but not
revealing its entirety. The campuses are boiling in anticipation
of the June 1 tri-city protest. 

MAY 27, 1989: Acting in accord with the still unannounced Plan
Djakarta, INS agents, backed by local police forces, federal
marshals and National Guard, stage massive raids on Latino
communities in Los Angeles, EL Paso. San Francisco Miami and
Washington. Any suspect not able to produce a registration card
is detained. Within 48 hours, some 38,000 "illegal aliens," all
Latinos, have been shipped to the California-desert holding
camps.

MAY 29, 1989: The Los Angeles Times carries a report that the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been drawn into
top-level White House planning to confront the growing civil
disorder. The article says that one option under discussion is
reportedly the temporary suspension of civil rights" The arrest
of aliens in the preceding days is cited as an initial first
phase of the emergency plan. White House spokesman Chris Wallace
calls (he Tines report "preposterous" A midnight Cabinet meeting
decides to accelerate the Plan Djakarta and to take measures to
block the planned.Tune 1 antiwar protest.

MAY 31, 1989: The Gore Administration declares Washington, D.C.,
to be a federal emergency disaster zone and bans for 90 days all
public demonstrations. Leaders of the antiwar NSAC. group say
they will go ahead with the protest. Their defiant call is
endorsed by the ACLU, by more than 70 church!groups and 125 labor
unions.

JUNE 1, 1989: Total chaos sweeps Washington as protesters fight
feverishly with federal troops. By nightfall there are 27 dead
civilians. Bombings staged by the TPPF guerrillas shatter.windows
in five cities. Congress goes into an emergency midnight session.
Resolutions are forwarded to hasten the fund cutoff for U.S.
military intervention. Momentum is building for impeachment.
After a marathon session, both houses agree to adjourn and
reconvene in 98 hours--June 6--to consider the pending motions.

Vice President Simon meets with Gore and advises that
rapprochement be reached with Capitol Hill. His plea is ignored.

JUNE 2, 1989: Gore breakfasts with his CIA director, National
Security Assistant, Defense and State Secretaries and with the
director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Agreement is
reached that Plan Djakarta must be immediately implemented. The
Joint Chiefs of Staff are brought into a noontime briefing. By
afternoon, there is a nationwide mobilization alert of the U.S.
Armed Forces.

At 6 p.m. President Gore calls in representatives from the major
broadcast and print media. He tells them that major steps are
about to be taken to quell the disorder, and that while he
opposes any form of censorship, he would appreciate the media
"acting with its highest sense of national and civic
responsibility."

JUNE 4, 1989: One day before the scheduled emergency session of
Congress. At 12 noon President Gore takes to the air. ln his most
somber cone, Gore reads what he calls "National Security Decision
Directive No. 2242" Congress is to be "recessed" for 90 days. All
local police departments are heretofore "federalized:' and
responsibility for domestic law and order passes into the hands
of the Defense Department. Under a declared state of national
emergency. all basic civil rights will be recognized. However,
"any public activity that disturbs the prevailing order" will not
be tolerated so long as the state of emergency exists. Local,
state and federal courts will retain full powers. However,
regional military commanders will retain full jurisdiction over
any crimes of a national-security nature. Those arrested under
the state of emergency will be subject to military courts which
have been empowered to hold suspects in preventive detention for
a 14-day period. No prior-press censorship has been instituted,
but the media is "requested and warned" co not disseminate any
"tendentious" information that could provoke civil disorder.

JUNE 5, 1989: The New York Times runs a full-banner headline:
"CONSTITUTION SUSPENDED: GORE STAGES MILITARY COUP." Federal
marshals confiscate the bulk of the paper's 900,000 press run.
Top management of the paper is arrested under the
state-of-emergency declarations. Some 200 members of Congress
defy Gore and attempt to hold a meeting inside the Congressional
building. Federal troops turn them away. When the congressmen
attempt a sit-in on the Capitol steps, they arc whisked away by
military police.

JUNE 6, 1989: With scattered violent protests and bombings
ranging from coast to coast, at least 35 municipal police
departments, acting with federal authority, declare dusk-to-dawn
curfews. More than 45 newspaper and 25 broadcast outlets are
closed down for "national security breaches+' Police departments
in Aspen. Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Burlington and San Jose refuse
"federalization:' They are disarmed and dispersed by Army troops,
but not before a shoot-out in Santa Cruz that takes five lives.
The governors of California, Oregon and Wisconsin are removed
from office after critical statements regarding the state of
emergency.

JUNE 14 1989: President Gore announces that the country's mayors
have 48 hours to turn municipal authority over to newly created
Municipal Democratic Defense Committees composed of joint
police-Army personnel. But before Gore's announcement is even
made, most major city halls have been seized by troops.

JUNE 11, 1989: State governments and legislatures are
"temporarily recessed'' Power is ceded to National Guard
commanders. Sporadic street protests in a dozen states are met
with brutal. bloody and swift repression.

JUNE 16, 1989: Formal prior-press censorship is imposed. The
normal plant of the country's functioning newspapers. TV and
radio stations is reduced by two-thirds. The military draft is
resumed.

JUNE 20, 1989: President Gore announces the creation of the
"Provisional Emergency' Administration:' Claiming to be "acting
in the best Jeffersonian traditions:' Gore says the "hallowed
U.S. Constitution, mortally threatened by external and :internal
subversion, must for now be withdrawn from use in order to better
guarantee its renewed viability in the near future" The Supreme
Court is "recessed" The executive branch of government now
consists of Gore and the Joint Chiefs, who have been included
into the Cabinet. The legislative branch is composed of a
temporary "National Assembly" composed of the 50 regional
military commanders. The judicial branch has been "folded into"
the jurisdiction of the Defense Department.

JUNE 25, 1989: A fearful, strange silence shrouds the nation. All
political parties have been recessed and prohibited from all
public activity. The press cannot obtain nor print accurate
figures but estimates place the number of political detainee
throughout the country at more than 375,000. Literature and film
must be approved by local military commanders.. Except for
dead-of-the-night bombings by the TPPF, all protest activity has
ceased.

JULY 4, 1989: On national TV, President Core and the Joint Chiefs
of Staff host an Independence Day celebration on the White House
lawn. Guests include representatives from organizations that have
publicly endorsed the military takeover: 145 members of Congress,
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Manufacturers
Association, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the
Boy Scouts of America, the newly created Americans for
Immigration Reform (AIR), the National Right to Life Coalition
and more than 2,200 local Republican Clubs and 350 Democratic
Clubs. They applaud Gore when he states that "our recent vigorous
steps to safeguard democracy will allow us to lift all
extraordinary measures within a five-year period"

JULY 5 to 29 1989: More than a half million U.S. combat troops
are poured into Nicaragua and EL Salvador. No exact figures are
published in the press. But on July 19, the tenth anniversary of
the Sandinista revolution, U.S. forces jubilantly occupy Managua.
But as Sandinista guerrilla resistance persists, confidential
Pentagon reports estimate that "substantial GOUS (Government of
United States) troop levels will need to be maintained throughout
Nicaragua for seven to ten years"

AUGUST 1, 1989: Former lieutenant colonel Oliver North is hired
as a lecturer on "Civil Society" at Harvard University, now under
"temporary" administration by the Sixth Regional Emergency
Military Command.

Texas Democrat Henry Gonzalez, who a few weeks before had
proposed the impeachment of the President, has "disappeared"
after being seen dragged from his home by a squad of
"unidentified, heavily armed men in uniform." 

Reprinted from _Hustler_, July 1988
 
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