Short and sweet; the Oath Keepers- that’s everyone who has genuinely joined the group in its stated purpose- is an idiot.
Not only are they abnormally stupid, but if they claim to be former military or police, then you can be sure it’s ‘former’ because they were found too mentally defective to continue in those roles.
From an Intelligence or Law Enforcement standpoint this organization is the equivalent of a ‘Facebook for Dummies’; or one of those police round up schemes when a criminal is told they’ve won the lottery and then is arrested when they show up to collect their prize. Don’t think for a minute that a myriad of DHS agencies haven’t identified this group as a serious threat for domestic terrorism.
Which makes the Oath Keepers very, very Useful Idiots.
More derision below the fold.
There are several themes which I believe work strongly against the genuine ‘Oath Keeper’ and their movement-
- Simpletons with an agenda at the Helm
- Recent concessions put in place by media venues relating to privacy
- Infiltration, or ‘Too Good to be True’?
Simpletons with an Agenda at the Helm
Let’s begin with the question ‘What are the purposes of the Oath Keepers, and their message of resistance? First, what they are about according to their website:
Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of currently serving military, veterans, peace officers, and firefighters who will fulfill the oath we swore to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God.
Our oath is to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and we will not obey unconstitutional (and thus illegal) and immoral orders, such as orders to disarm the American people or to place them under martial law and deprive them of their ancient right to jury trial.
Every private in the military receives a course in lawful versus unlawful orders, and the educated Soldier knows the reasons, delivered through history, on why our nation was founded deliberately on the subservience of the military to the civilian government. The problem with the Oath Keeper appears to be that they lack this knowledge, either through willful or accidental ignorance. Just to be clear, here is the general Oath of Enlistment that most Soldiers, Marines, Airman and Sailors swear too-
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
You’ll spot right away what the Oath Keeper leaves out of their pledge. The partisan in me can’t let this pass without pointing out that these gentlemen didn’t seem to have a problem in 2000, when a man assumed the office of President DESPITE the will of the American People, but that’s another issue.
So the Oath Keeper’s, ignorant of the Constitution and the full text of the Oath, suddenly seem worried that they may be asked to do something they swore to do when committed to serving the country; namely obeying an order from the present and the lawful administration. To me, it sounds like they have more of an issue with the current president than it does with upholding the Constitution.
Second, what is the purpose of their message of resistance?
Clearly it’s a threat- and anyone on their side who argues otherwise is a liar. The Oath Keepers message is unambiguous, ‘we have the (government) training, resources and will to do violence should we see fit to do so’. Dress up their words in any fancy rhetoric you like, these proto-insurgents are telegraphing their intentions without any attempt at subtly.
Which is why, from a strictly tactical position, it is THE most stupid thing they could have done if their goal was to effect what they imply in their Oath Keeper manifesto; because they have offered themselves up, whole and uncut, to those agencies that protect the US from exactly this kind of activity. Which leads me to the next point...
Recent concessions put in place by media venues relating to privacy
Web resources such as Cryptome and Wikileaks and the FAS Project on Government Secrecy have recently reported on the spate of documents provided by Microsoft; AT&T; Verizon; Facebook, etc, ad nasuem to law enforcement on how to get around subpoena and warrants when gathering domestic Intelligence. Simply put these businesses have facilitated the removal of barriers that maintained privacy.
How this relates to the Oath Keepers is simple; their chat rooms; Emails; browsing history; buddy lists; contacts; etc are now easily accessible to savvy government agencies. For good or for ill, they are providing a road map to any potential cells the Oath Keepers may have entertained setting up. Moreover, they can use this information effectively in the next point...
Infiltration, or ‘Too Good to be True’?
If the last decade of Public Demonstrations inside the United States haven’t made it clear, let me just state unequivocally that Americans live in an Intelligence Gathering Society.
Academics call it Research; Soldiers call it Reconnaissance; Intelligence workers call it Tradecraft. Make no mistake about it, the Oath Keepers are infiltrated through and through with law enforcement agents. FBI; DHS; ATF- pick whatever government acronym makes you most happy- they have the Oath Keepers under the hammer; and I don’t mean a carpenter’s hammer.
The Oath Keepers, in announcing an unequivocal threat, reinforced by the population they target for membership- military, police, etc- have made themselves a prime breeding ground for Domestic Terrorists; and therefore a prime target of our nation’s law enforcement communities. In fact one could make a convincing argument that this organization makes it so childishly easy to roll up rouge soldiers or policemen, that it had been designed to do just that. (All those who share my deep seated character traits of suspicion and paranoia probably arrived at this idea already.)
The genuine Oath Keeper adherent is an idiot for many reasons but mainly in my view for having so little faith in Americans that what they imply would actually be necessary. Additionally from a movement perspective the Oath keepers in their present form are so handicapped by their own mis-steps as to create a bonanza of law enforcement and counter-intelligence opportunities. And though the membership is neutered by their exposure, yet they can be used to infiltrate smarter and deadlier anti-government groups.