AMY GOODMAN: A little-noticed story surfaced a couple of weeks ago in the Army Times newspaper about the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. “Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months,” reported Army Times staff writer Gina Cavallaro, “the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.” Disturbingly, she writes that “they may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control” as well. The force will be called the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive Consequence Management Response Force. Its acronym, CCMRF, is pronounced “sea-smurf.” These “sea-smurfs,” Cavallaro reports, have “spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle,” in a combat zone, and now will spend their 20-month “dwell time” — time troops are required to spend to “reset and regenerate after a deployment” — armed and ready to hit the U.S. streets....
FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE.
It gets worse:
NAOMI WOLF: On October 1, 2008, President Bush deployed a brigade — which means three to four thousand warriors — somewhere in America. We do not know where they are deployed though citizens have informally reported to me having seen military vehicles and troops in Georgia and Alabama. We do know that their official mandate according to the first report is “crowd control” as well as action in the event of a mass civilian catastrophe. Initial reports described their technology “module package” as involving Tasers and rubber bullets.... The First Brigade is Bush’s force: they are not answerable to Congress or to the Governors of states: they are answerable to the Commander in Chief. In an Alternet posting, I interviewed Air Force Colonel (retired) David Antoon who noted that the troops must obey the president, even if he asks them to arrest Congress or fire on civilians or attack media outlets. If they do not obey orders, he notes, they face five years in prison.... Antoon himself calls the deployment “ominous.” Troops on our streets makes us something less than a democracy: one definition of a police state is when a leader sends his own military units into civilian streets. Meanwhile the civilian policing of citizens is becoming more brutal. Hundreds of preemptive arrests took place in St Paul, dozens of journalists were arrested.... In St. Paul, funds were sent in advance to pay off the lawsuits against police forces that were guaranteed to arise from the planned abuse of citizens. This sort of thing is happening across the country. The tactic has established a closed circle that has turned citizens’ law enforcement agencies into contractors of a state that is directing acts of increasing severity against US citizens. Now a military brigade is being deployed....
FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE.
Click here to see an interview with Naomi Wolf conducted in early October 2008.
For the past five years or so I hve been hearing rumors that Halliburton has been building (and has now finished building) 800 prisons throughout the USA, not yet functioning, but just waiting for the right crisis. I have not found reliable evidence for the specific quantity, readiness, functionality, locations, or details, but you might be interested in taking a look at page 5 of this Halliburton press release dated 26 January 2006: KBR has been awarded a contract announced by the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) component. The Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contingency contract is to support ICE facilities and has a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term. The contract provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States, or to support the rapid development of new programs.... Now, really, what are the chances of “an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States”? And what are the “new programs” that could come under “rapid development”?
FOR THE FULL PRESS RELEASE, CLICK HERE.
When Caligula became a surprise hit at the few cinemas that could show it, Brass’s four-year dry spell ended, as producers were clamoring for his attention. Giovanni Bertolucci hired him to direct the Marquis de Sade’s scandalous sex epic, La philosophie dans la boudoir.
You can try to trace the story from these terse references:
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Variety (5 October 1977): Franco Brocani will direct “Boudoir”—from the Marquis De Sade book—for Italo banner Sword Film in coproduction with Spain next month. Case includes Pierre Clementi, Tomas Milian and Rada Rassimov. |
Variety (19 October 1977), p 43: Sword PHILOSOPHY OF THE BOUDOIR (Nov. start) Producer: W/Alta Mira of Spain Director: Franco Brocani Cast: Pierre Clementi, Fernando Rey, Rada Rassimov Distrib: Vis |
Variety, 25 January 1978, p 42: Sword PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOUDOIR (Feb. start) Producer: w/Alta Mira of Spain Director: Franco Brocani Cast: Pierre Clementi, Stanko Molnar, and w/Fernando Rey |
Variety, 22 March 1978, p 40: ...Solaris, a new company headed by Lello Monteverdi and Adriano Arie for film, legit and TV production, has taken over “Philosophy of the Boudoir” to adapt the Marquis de Sade neurotic erotic tome to cinema, with Fernando Rey, Tomas Milian and Viva under the direction of Franco Brocano. Victim of de Sade’s sado fantasies will be Paola Morra, a Playboy Italian cover girl last year. |
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Variety, 25 March 1981: Giovanni Tinto Brass, unemployed since he directed “Caligula,” is reactivating with his Napoleonic-era adaptation of the Marquis De Sade’s “Boudoir.” |
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Variety, 6 May 1981: G.B. Milesi set up a new company, Babylon I, to produce the next Giovanni Tinto Brass picture “Boudoir” from the erotica classic by the Marquis de Sade. Milesi has closed three production deals for some of the major markets and has appointments set up at the Cannes Festival for the remainder. Brass directed “Caligula” until he took his name off the credits in a deal with Penthouse giving Bob Guccione free rein to bring in the version in release. |
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Variety, 13 May 1981: BABYLON I Producer G.B. Milesi has completed marketing of all his past production—film and tv—and is now back in the harness to produce the next Giovanni Tinto Brass film “Boudoir”—in an adaptation from the erotic novel by D.A.F. Marquis de Sade. “Boudoir” script is finished and preparation is in full swing. Milesi has apparently made some far-reaching pre-production sales while Brass—who directed “Caligula” but lost his credit in a deal with Bob Guccione—said “Boudoir” should be more erotic than the Penthouse production. |
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Variety, 2 September 1981, p 34: Sets are going up at Dear Studios where Tinto Brass will begin his big-budgeted adaptation of Marquis de Sade’s “Boudoir” Oct. 19 for producer G.B. Milesi of Babylon Film. |
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Variety, 28 October 1981, p 34: Babylon One BOUDOIR (Oct. 15 start at Dear Studios) Producer: G.B. Milesi Director: Tinto Brass Cast: International cast |
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Variety, 30 June 1982, p 34: G.B. Milesi has temporarily scratched the Tinto Brass version of “Boudoir” from his program and is teaming with producer Pino Buricchi on a new untitled project.... |
Amazingly, a sex mag entitled Aldo Blitz (vol 51 no 7, 16 February 1985), has a two-page pictorial (pp 8–9) entitled “Toh, son calate le mutande!” with a subtitle: “TINTO BRASS scatena l’«offensiva a luce rossa» anche in teatro.” It contains five color publicity photos from a stage production of this same work, here entitled Boudoir del Marchese De Sade. The players were Antonio Salines as the Divine Marquis, Patrick Rossi Gastaldi, Svetlana Starkova, Elena Ursitti, and “Igmar Veithen,” which I’d be willing to bet is a typo for Irma Veithen. The photos, which I dare not reproduce here, are remarkably surreal, similar to the publicity photos for Pranzo di famiglia, which I also dare not reproduce on this site. The script was by Tinto Brass and his playwright friend Roberto Lerici, and the production was performed at the Teatro Belli di Roma. If you have any more info on this, please write to me. Thanks!