Finally! Kingsville Military "Exercise" Makes It Into The Houston Chronicle

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I can't believe it took so long for this story to make it into this major newspaper! Read the portion about the Internet and see if you think "they" read this forum. :-) Here are a few snips:

Delta Force training exercise shakes up Kingsville

By JIM HENDERSON

Houston Chronicle- Sunday, February 21, 1999

"Skimming the treetops and power lines, four black helicopters streaked by... and landed on top of an abandoned, two-story Exxon office building just across King Street."

"We could see vague shadows of men pouring out of them... Then we could hear gunfire and grenades going off, and we could see flashes of light through some of the windows that were broken out."

"Two larger choppers, both without lights, followed the first four. While one hovered over the First National Motor Bank, the other leapfrogged the old Exxon building and landed at two other abandoned buildings... There were more explosions, and a column of smoke rose into the night sky."

"Members of the Army's elite anti-terrorism unit known as Delta Force were using Kingsville as a training ground for an urban commando assault."

"While there were no injuries, the mock assault did result in one mishap that fueled concerns over safety. At the old police station, soldiers using a welding torch to cut through wires accidentally ignited a fire that gutted the building and did structural damage to the roof. The Army said it would pay for the damage."

[All of this is pretty much the same thing that was reported by WorldNetDaily, but the next part is new.]

"Almost as soon as the Special Forces departed Kingsville for Corpus Christi, the controversy over the in-town training spread to the Internet and political camps."

"From its Washington, D.C. office, the Libertarian Party issued a press release demanding that the military "stop terrifying small town invasions."

"Conspiracy theorists on the World Wide Web began asking, "Is the U.S. Army invading Texas?"

"On radio talk shows, callers were allowing that the urban assault training was preparation for martial law that will be declared during the chaos that will accompany massive computer failures in the year 2000."

[The article ends with the Kingsville Mayor (who had earlier lied about not knowing what was going on) saying that "most of the town's citizens favor cooperating with the military" and "It was a great show of support for our country," etc. But the county commissioners demanded that they be informed of similar exercises in the future.]

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), February 22, 1999

Answers

Oooowwwie, Gayla, us gossipy internet junkies thrashing dem conspiracy theories roundabouts? Well ain't that sumpin ta tell Ida Marie. "On radio talk shows, callers were allowing that the urban assault training was preparation for martial law that will be declared during the chaos that will accompany massive computer failures in the year 2000." How'd dis land get saw full'o whackos, anyways. From da net ta da radio ta Aunt Jemina's kitchen table, I declare, it done hopped onto da newspaper. Think Uncle Zacharia gonna believe it now?

Sure did infect Gayla with dat war osmosis, she primed for battle, see what it do? Ain't no tellin what a few mo months o' this is going become around the grapevine ...

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx x

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), February 22, 1999.


Gayla,

Thanks for posting this!

Leska,

My Husband tried telling people at work about this. They don't BELIEVE it happened. 'Cuz ya know if it did, it would be on the evening news, and in all the papers! Long live the www. ;-)

Deborah

-- Deborah (andthatsthe@wayit.is), February 22, 1999.


I suspect "lots" of them monitor the net. (Even post).

Wonder if we could give the AP wire some "niche market" competition.

Thanks Gayla. And least it "finally" did show up.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 22, 1999.


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