Posted by: Michelle Wright
Former Navy SEAL Ben Smith warns that the Obama administration is asking top brass in the military if they would be comfortable with disarming U.S. citizens, a litmus test that includes gauging whether they would be prepared to order troops to fire on Americans.
Smith provoked headlines last week when he appeared on Fox News to assert that the federal government was trying to provoke veterans into violence as an excuse to implement martial law.
Speaking exclusively to the Alex Jones Show, Smith stated, “Going back to the beginning of this administration, I’ve had friends within the community talking about how they were brought in and questioned with people from more towards the top side and the questioning….where it was pointing was do you feel comfortable disarming American citizens,” adding that this was one of the many “funny things” occurring within the military.
When Smith was asked by radio host Alex Jones if this line of questioning included a litmus test whereby military officers were asked if they would fire on U.S. citizens, he responded in the affirmative.
Smith said the litmus test was related to the recent firing of top military commanders Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina and Maj. Gen. Michael Carey.
Smith linked the premise to former Obama advisor Van Jones, who was forced to resign in September 2009 after his links with a Marxist organization were revealed.
“You drop the radical pose for the radical ends,” said Smith, paraphrasing Van Jones.
The idea of U.S. soldiers being asked if they will fire on American citizens during a crisis or mass disarmament program has emerged from several different sources over the last two decades.
In January, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jim Garrow claimed he was told by a top military veteran that the Obama administration’s “litmus test” for new military leaders is whether or not they will obey an order to fire on U.S. citizens.
Concerns over U.S. troops being given orders to fire on American citizens in the event of mass gun confiscation first arose in May 1994 when hundreds of Marines at 29 Palms, California were given a survey as part of an academic project by Navy Lieutenant Commander Ernest Guy Cunningham which asked the Marines if they would, “Fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist confiscation of firearms banned by the United States government.”
The survey was subsequently leaked because many of the Marines who took it were shocked by the tone of the question.