"The cousin lives in Ohio and her husband is a truck driver for Wal-Mart. It seems he was driving a load early last week and stopped at a border weigh station. The inspector wanted to know what was in the load, and the driver indicated he did not know. He merely picked up the trailer and was transporting it to another state.

The inspector opened the trailer and saw hundreds of uniform boxes. He asked what was in the boxes and the driver again stated that he didn't know. So the inspector opened a box.

In the box were about a hundred large (about 2'x3') plastic signs that stated: "This City Under Martial Law" in bright colors. It said something about the fed govt and had what looked like a legal reference (the driver claims to know nothing about legal issues, but he thought it was a reference to a law or an Executive Order or something). "

One commentator doubted.

"Also, every driver demands a bill of laden, they will not load till they have it, and they will not connect to a trailer until it is in their hands. The "bill of laden" will tell exactly what is in the truck. No trucker will risk driving without one because of the HAZ-MAT laws. Inspections are only done when they do not have a bill of laden, or their log book does not correspond to the BOL. Wal-Mart drivers have strict rule and are company drivers, so there log books will almost always be squeaky clean. I think this might be a net rumor."

Actually, this is exactly the way a compartmented operation, run by the military, would operate.

http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/6383

-- ng (cantprovideemail@none.com), October 05, 1999

Answers

Hmmm. Let's see. Who's the richest family in America? Gee...the Walton family.

Works for me.

-- US martial law starts in January (@ .), October 05, 1999.

I don't doubt that there will be martial law, but this story smells like a made-up one. It just smells like that sort of thing. As I say, however, I think we can expect the imposition of martial law in large cities...

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), October 05, 1999.

Howdy,

This story made the rounds a year or so ago, only it was martial law roadblocks or some such. Didn't make much sense then, don't think it makes much sense now. Can you say "urban myth?" I thought you could.

Furthermore, there are not enough troops to garrison the US, even if you threw in the National Guard, the UN and the British SAS. And if the National Guard does show up in your neighborhood sometime in January, my bet is you are going to be REAL happy to see them.

"So I picked up this hitchhiker one night, a real babe, and when I looked in the back seat....."

-- William in Dallas (bcheek@onramp.net), October 05, 1999.

Ummmmmm, it's "Bill of Lading", AKA a Freight Bill, too many of which arer filled out as "FAK" and signed.

FAK = Freight, All Kinds

bill auditor

-- Retired Freight Auditor (RockingCh@ir.retired), October 05, 1999.

Lockdown on December 28, martial law arrangements becoming visible by November 1. Not much longer of a wait to see if these "insider" tips come true!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 05, 1999.

I don't know. I spent too much time over in alt.folklore.urban and reading books by Jan Harold Brunvand for this not to raise a strong red FOAF ("friend of a friend") flag.

In short, there is nothing here that CAN BE investigated. Gary passes much of what he receives on 'as is' - there might be some truth to it or it might be total fabrication. Either way we won't know because there are no names, dates, or other factual evidence that can be followed up on.

For now, this goes in the 'dubious' pile. And please, for you long- timers here, no reminders of my similar and quite mistaken position on banking's proposed "Know Your Customer" rules. I was wrong. They actually were trying to implement such an insane plan. I have already admitted I was wrong about that.

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), October 05, 1999.

Any driver who has ever driven any freight anywhere in the country knows what a "Bill of Lading" is. Just the fact that someone had written "bill of laden" leads me to believe that this is a crock.

-- dan (dbuchner@logistics.calibersys.com), October 05, 1999.

I should hope that martial law plans are being actualized by now, just in case. Not that I expect them to be used, but as a contingency plan it seems a no-brainer. I agree that if and where martial law is put into effect, most people will be very glad to see it. We can only hope that if it's required, it will be a well thought out and orderly process, not a haphazard rush job with panicky toy soldiers.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), October 05, 1999.

William:

You wrote, "Furthermore, there are not enough troops to garrison the US".

This is a common theme among those who claim that martial law can't be imposed here.

But let's think about this. By such reasoning it would be impossible for martial law to be imposed anywhere, ever.

Clearly that is not the case. Martial law does not mean that we would all live in concentration camps. I believe, for example, that the Philippines was under some sort of martial law for about 10 years. You would not have known it simply walking down a street in the daytime.

I have no opinion as to whether a declaration of martial law is likely or not. I do feel that if the situation requires, certain restrictions will be placed on the American people. It will *not*, however, be called Martial Law.

-- TrustHim (ItComes@Soon.now), October 05, 1999.

The husband of a cousin sounds even goofier than a friend of a friend. And, WALMART, for Pete's sake? Can't you just imagine the secret .gov meeting that would lead to something like this? "Chief, we need to transport Martial Law signs in a way that no one will ever learn of our covert and nefarious plans for the sheeple. What should we do?" To which The Chief replies, "I know!! Call WalMart!!"

I am not a truck driver, nor do I personally know anyone in the trucking industry...but, even I know it's "Bill of Lading". I guess it's Gary North's website, and he can publish whatever crackpot hoax he chooses...just wish TB2000 didn't get painted with the same goofy brush.

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), October 05, 1999.

TrustHim:

I take your point. The powers that be can, if they wish, declare martial law (whether by the feds or the governors) everywhere. I just wanted to point out that enforcing it adequately in more than a limited number of urban centers is going to be almost impossible.

Trying to figure out how the post New Years scenario(s) is (are?) going to play is beginning to make my head hurt. I don't reckon I am the only one who feels that way, nor am I probably the only one who can't resist running scenarios through my head.

For all of those who think the doomers around here jump on the bad news and reject the good--a nice lesson in this thread. Good judgement abounds on this forum. And to ng, our anonymous poster--sorry if we jumped on you with both feet--but we heard that one before!

Best regards,

-- William in Dallas (bcheek@onramp.net), October 05, 1999.

Too much of this junk ends up here and at "Gary's Place".

I really doubt the validity of the story and frankly wonder why Gary deems it worth printing. Maybe it was a slow news day.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), October 05, 1999.

Not to worry about the Martial Law signs. Wal-Mart is stocking up on them because they go with this Halloweeens scariest outfit, the John Koskinen!

-- not2k (not2k@yahoo.com), October 05, 1999.

Heres a link for urban legends-they need a new catagory for y2k though. maybe this story will be a start.

http://www.snopes.com/

-- mchenry (cymchenry@siedata.com), October 05, 1999.

Actually, it was last Feb or March when a similar story showed up on this forum. It was posted by a lady who was married to a CHP. She stated that he had stopped a truck laden with signs reading "This Freeway Closed by order of the US Military", if memory serves. Not sure of all the exact details, but pretty close.

That story sounded plausible, this one.....ehyyyy?

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), October 05, 1999.

Typical polly answer: I'm from Ohio, and I never met a truck driver that said that!

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), October 06, 1999.

I have friends and relatives who have trained for this for years. It is easy and possible and the signs have been warehoused around the country for years & more have been on order resently. As far as confining a city, easy, I have been told. What they do in these urban drill (as have been going on recently) is just block of Freeway use & major roads in & out. They do this w/ vehicles & just a few personel (they even have those dummys like you see when cop cars set up those speed traps or fake "we are keeping an eye out here" sites). The plans for how to do this, in another form were out lined in "operation Garden plot" years ago by FEMA. And like what was mentioned below may nations around the world have gone in and out of Martial Law. Take a look at what has been on Nightline w/ Ted Koppel all this week (continued tonight) about how & why the government would invoke Martial Law.

I have also recently been advised that FEMA as we know it has been restructured (this can also be confirmed by reading the latest Executive orders) & that GORE (there is some buzz in some circles that for some reason or another Clinton is not expected to play a very important role next year. Stated that too many scandals & evidence of his connections of espionage will come to light) is to be the contact man.. sounds strange perhaps but what we know as FEMA is now under an organization of the Department of Justice & connected w/ the FBI in some way. At a recent news conference (which I veiwed) w/ FEMA head in reguards to hurricain Floyd it was state by a top reporter "I bet FEMA can't wait for this hurricaine season to be over so you all can take a break" it was responded by "well actually, we will be very busy as we are now in prepareing for Y2K".

Now look at the entire text of the already passed recent "immigration bill" & others that include items that make Martial Law very easy to manage. The immigration bill now makes the National ID card for all citizens manditory (yes children too) & states that it must be fully in place by oct 2000. This is a very complex high tech id card/social security card etc.. that must be used in order to register for school, get a job, housing, get a bank account, services, medical treatment, etc.. & that they must be shown to maintain services we already believe we have. This is not science fiction nor urban legend.. please look this up.. it is true and no one stopped it.. & now the precident is set.

-- infomate (earlgrey@tea.com), October 07, 1999.