Source: Northeast Intelligence Network
By Sean Osborne, Associate Director, Military Affairs
19 May 2007:Having just endured a near disaster in the wild fires of southern New Jersey, as well as the prospect of a mandatory evacuation with no guarantee that the family home would still exist in the aftermath, I’ve come away from this experience with significant additional lessons learned on how to prudently plan and prepare in advance of an unforseen catastrophe. These lessons are an augmentation to those I have already put into place. I believe the application of the following plan might be a template upon which others could build a more robust family preparedness plan.
With respect to a mass-casualty or mass-destruction terrorist event, many American national authorities are clearly stating that it is not a question of “if,” but “when” such a reality visits this nation again. Similarly and with respect to any of a number of different types of natural disasters – earth, wind, water and fire - they also can occur at any time and almost without warning anywhere in the country. Following these preparatory guidelines and/or merging them with others, given the uniqueness of your own situation, will ensure the optimum chances of your family’s well-being or near-term survival at home or if evacuated to a remote location in a worst-case scenario. Following the recommendations of this special report will also go a long way relieving the unnecessary stress and tensions of last minute collecting of materials you will need to endure almost any situation.
One inherent beauty of such planning and preparation is that it invokes the most inviolate of all God-given American freedoms – the enabling right of self-determination. This planning and preparation might very likely become the critical determination as to whether or not you become just another hapless victim or a survivor.
A long-time favorite self-determination and preparedness website of mine is that of John Moore’s website http://www.thelibertyman.com. As John explains on his website, “The government cannot and will not protect individuals or families. Our government agencies are doing the best job they can to keep our country safe. However, no government agency (including FEMA) is responsible for a comprehensive defense program.” Moreover, all facets of the safety, security and well-being of your family during a disaster scenario is your personal duty and responsibility. This is absolutely not the responsibility of the “government” regardless of all that you have heard in the MSM in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Uncle Sam will show up with multiple forms of assistance in due course, but until that time arrives you need to prepare as if your lives depended on it, because they probably will.
Here are my brief and basic recommendations for before you are confronted with a “gotta go” situation:
Finance: Keep an acceptable amount of cold, hard cash, a spare debit or credit card in a convenient yet secure location in your home, vehicle or within prepared the stocks I’ll get to later. In some really extreme instances banks or ATMs may not function where you are, so the cash will be essential.
Transportation: If you own an SUV make sure it has a roof rack. If not, get one. If you have a car, the addition of a roof rack is a good idea. Also, the addition of a trailer hitch is a good idea. You don’t necessarily need a trailer for the hitch, but it is how you can attach a carry-all for other items I will identify below. As part of this area of preparation know where you can go in an emergency by identifying in advance at least three locations to evacuate to aside from public shelters. Have two filled 5-gallon auxiliary gasoline jerry cans in reserve at all times. A hand-operated siphon eliminates spillage. Always keep your vehicle in good running order.
Communications: I recommend the purchase of a Grundig FR-200 AM-FM-Shortwave radio. No batteries are required as it is powered by a simple hand crank mechanism. Have your cell phone fully charged as often as possible, and keep a spare 12VDC cigarette power adapter in your vehicle at all times. If you have a laptop computer, buy a wireless internet adapter card. Remote off-the-grid power is found in the next item below.
Portable Electrical Power: Consider purchasing one of the Xpower AC/DC powerpack modules made by Xantrex. They are small, hand-portable, rechargeable powerpacks which come with an AC/DC voltage inverter, integrated vehicle jumper cables (with fail-safe correct connection indicators), a 250 PSI air compressor with assorted nozzles, an integrated flashlight and one each 12VDC and 120VAC electrical outlets, and AC or DC recharging. I have the 400R model and find this unit to be absolutely invaluable all of the time.
When “Gotta-Go” time arrives here are items I recommend having in pre-packed, ready to load, modular containers which will go on your roof rack and/or trailer hitch carry all.
Consumable Sustenance: This is just another fancy way of saying life support essentials. Acquire non-perishable foods, dry, canned or dehydrated from your home pantry or cupboard. These supplies should be consumed and replaced with new as required. Augment this collection with the purchase of what are known today as MREs or Meals Ready To Eat. For a family of four persons a minimum of eight 12-meal cases should be accumulated. Two sources of these items I recommend are http://www.apackmeals.com and http://www.mrefoods.com. A great assortment of tasty and nutritious meals, breads, fruits and drinks, among other items, are available at very low per meal/per person costs. Also keep a minimum of 4 cases of bottled water on hand. It would be advisable to have at least one 25-quart cooler to be filled with short-term perishables pulled directly from your refrigerator/freezer and then covered with 2 or 3 bags of ice. Depending on the situation, draining the water for other uses or purification is a bonus. The ice may be replenished according to your particular situation. At the minimum your refrigerated/frozen food will not have gone to waste.
Medicines and Sanitation: Keep all medicines and medical supplies, items for personal hygiene, vitamins and dietary supplements centrally located for quick accumulation in an emergency. Store some items in a prepared container. I highly recommend acquiring from http://www.allthingsfirstaid.com a "Standard Trauma Kit." Also purchase and keep sealed in their original wrapper several tubs of “baby wipes” of generic or national brands. These little pre-moistened handy wipes are just about indispensable whether you’re in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan or somewhere in the US during an emergency. They will save gallons of precious water when used to take a ‘dry bath’. I would be remiss in not mentioning one medicinal item I would never leave home without. That would be a bottle of the virucidal-germicidal solution known as Oreganol P73 formula made by North American Herb & Spice. Oreganol contains the naturally occuring active ingredient carvacrol which kills virtually every virus known to man. Just two drops of Oreganol in your system will maintain your health against all manner of viruses. Certified medical research has proven the effectiveness of this product against Coronavirus, Type-A Influenza virus, with on-going studies reflecting positive results against HIV, HBV, HCV, herpes, Hanta and West Nile viruses, H5N1 Avian Influenza, Staphylococcus, Hepatitis, Candida. The other incredible health benefits of this product are far too numerous to list here. Oreganol is a germ-killer extraordinaire and can be taken internally or applied topically.
’Gimme Shelter’: Purchase one or two quick-erect, 4 to 6 person dome tents. Add ground cover or water-proof tarps for each. Adding blankets, pillows, hammocks, sleeping bags, or cots to your shopping list will ensure comfort. Some of these items can be stored in the vacuum-sealed bags seen advertised on television. This saves space and keeps the bedding fresh until needed. The same goes for items of clothing and footware. Purchase assorted camping related items and nylon rope, axe, hatchet, chain saw and the like for this segment of preparations.
As a rule of thumb, I have determined to always be prepared for a minimum of 30 days of survival necessities for four persons. Your circumstances will dictate what you can do. For other ideas, and an excellent resource you will delve into repeatedly, I would highly recommend you get the book “What To Do ‘Til The Cavalry Comes” released a year ago by author and subject matter expert Matt Lawrence (website: http://www.mattlawrencebooks.com ). Matt’s book is a compendium of sage advice and a guide to prudent planning for any type of a given scenario such as I am urging all to immediately prepare for with this article. There is no time like the present.
What you decide to do from this point forward will determine more than just your own survival in a natural or a man-made disaster. Others are counting on you to act prudently – now.
AN IDEA FIRMLY PLANTED
by J. R. Nyquist
“A great proportion of the thoughts with which we live are not thought out by us with the evidence in hand.”
-- José Ortega y Gasset
In a book titled Man and Crisis, the Spanish philosopher José Ortega discussed the inner-workings of historical crisis. Through most of history, he said, the world changes gradually from generation to generation. The change is such that continuity is not disrupted. “An historical crisis,” wrote Ortega, “is a world change which differs from the normal change….” The system of convictions belonging to a previous generation “gives way to a vital state in which man remains without these convictions, and therefore without a world. Man returns to a state of not knowing what to think about the world. Therefore the change swells to a crisis and takes on the character of a catastrophe.” This is where we are today, in the United States and Europe. Look around and consider the prevailing cynicism. As Ortega noted, “One feels a profound disdain for everything, or almost everything, which was believed yesterday; but the truth is that there are no new positive beliefs with which to replace the traditional ones.” In a recent book titled Suicide of the West, authors Richard Koch and Chris Smith lament the collapse of Western optimism and positive belief. According to Koch and Smith, “Some Americans and some Europeans have betrayed or drifted away from the ideas and ideals that have made Western civilization so attractive and successful.” They further noted: “The West has gained hugely in economic unity, prosperity and military force, but declined markedly in social cohesion, moral force, certainty of purpose and mutual support and sympathy between America and Europe….” An historical crisis has begun. The old convictions have collapsed, and new ones have yet to appear.
With the end of the Cold War, America’s enemies have seemingly evaporated and new enemies have appeared. We are so confused by events, so uncertain in our interpretation, that we no longer properly identify the players or the plays. We no longer identify treason with those who advocate the defeat of their own country. We no longer identify sabotage with those who are attempting to destroy national industries (like timber, oil or agriculture). People on all sides invent their own convictions, ideologies and theologies. More often than not, these convictions merely reflect personal vanity, wishful thinking or neurotic fear. Through a gradual process, institutions are destabilized. The ground is always shifting as one ugly controversy gives way to the next. The scandal now brought forward by George Tenet, former Director of Central Intelligence, is a case in point. The public and the pundits are attracted to the sensation of a former U.S. government official blaming other government officials. What they miss entirely is the vital intelligence that Tenet off-handedly presents. Since they lack a solid foundation in what is what, in who is who, they cannot see what has remained through thick and thin; that is, the rightness of old convictions. Tenet’s book, At the Center of the Storm, touches on al Qaeda’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union. Tenet claims that al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahri and Abdel al-Aziz al-Masri, negotiated for three Russian nuclear devices in the 1990s. It is curious, indeed, that Zawahri and Masri were allegedly trained by Russia. In other words, they are likely to be Russian agents, working for Russian strategists. As this column has repeatedly pointed out, Zawahri has been named as a long-time KGB agent. And the man who fingered him was poisoned with polonium-210 last November, and died.
This is very serious business, and we need to pay attention. We should not assume that al Qaeda has Russian nuclear weapons. In fact, such weapons cannot be used without state sponsorship. Nuclear weapons built in Russia require permissive action codes to detonate. President Vladimir Putin has the codes, and his top general has the codes. Therefore, Russian nuclear weapons acquired on the black market cannot be used to attack anyone, unless Moscow gives away the codes. Anyone attempting to acquire Russian nuclear weapons would know this in advance, and would realize the futility of paying good money for nothing. It is more likely, in this case, that Russian strategists want us to believe that Arab terrorists have acquired nuclear weapons. And the reason for this should not be far to find. If we dared return to our Cold War convictions, we would see that something deadly is being set up (but not as advertised). If Russia decided to initiate a war with the United States, or conduct false flag terrorist operations, the American side would tend to misidentify the source of the attack. The United States would not retaliate against the attacking country because the United States would misidentify the attacker. This would lead to further errors in terms of national deployment, overall preparedness and strategic orientation.
The fact that Americans have lost their base of conviction, their firm foundation in recognizing hostile countries like Russia and China, plays into this scenario. We have been told again and again since 9/11 that Arab terrorists are the main threat to American security. But the main threat to the United States is from those countries that seek to replace the U.S. as the world’s leading power. According to José Ortega y Gasset, “With some shame we recognize that the greater part of the things we say we do not understand very well; and if we ask ourselves why we say them, why we think them, we will observe that we say them only for this reason: that we have heard them said, that other people say them. We have never tried to rethink them on our own account, or to find the evidence for them. On the contrary, the reason we do not think about them is not that they are evident to us, but that other people say them. We have abandoned ourselves to other people and we live in a state of otherness, constantly deceiving and defrauding ourselves.”
When asked by CBS journalist Scott Pelley whether al Qaeda has nuclear weapons, Tenet said he didn’t know. But he was worried, and he added that thousands of U.S. nuclear weapons might be rendered “irrelevant” by a terrorist nuclear arsenal because terrorists aren’t state actors and you cannot retaliate against them. Imagine how cunning this is: A clandestine formation appears out of Afghanistan and makes war on the United States. It is armed with Soviet weapons but somehow unconnected to Russia. Our old concepts are gone. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) is gone. The old Soviet enemy is gone. Or was that, in itself, another instance of saying that “we do not understand very well” something that we never “tried to rethink” on our own account? Americans never seriously thought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. We rushed to take that collapse at face value. “We have abandoned ourselves to other people,” said Ortega, “and we live in a state of otherness, constantly deceiving and defrauding ourselves.”
In October 1990 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was confronted by a journalist who asked about Lenin’s New Economic Policy [NEP], in which Soviet leaders deceived the West about the ultimate direction of the Soviet system in the 1920s. Gorbachev replied in a curious way, stating that “many people … failed to grasp the depth of Lenin’s design, perceiving the NEP at best as a tactical move.” It was, in fact, a strategic move. Gorbachev went on to explain that communism was not dying. It was in the process of reinventing itself. “This last is very important,” explained Ortega. “During periods of crisis, positions which are false or feigned are very common.”
Men live by conviction, or else – in the words of Ortega – they become “null and void.” Whether we like it or not, we must have convictions. Ideally, we ought to believe what is objectively true. And we should not allow our beliefs to be influenced by enemies. We cannot be so thoughtless, or drift so mindlessly, that we uncritically swallow questionable information about a future terrorist attack. This warning cannot be given enough, and should circulate throughout the United States of America and Europe. We are so accustomed to the collapse of old ideas that we look back with scorn at the mentality of the Cold War, at the mentality of Ronald Reagan. What if the Soviet Union was, indeed, a lethal threat? What if it continues, in changed form, to threaten the United States? Is this idea so strange, so bizarre, as to receive no hearing whatsoever
Let us give it a hearing, then.
© 2007 Jeffrey R. Nyquist
“A great proportion of the thoughts with which we live are not thought out by us with the evidence in hand.”
-- José Ortega y Gasset
In a book titled Man and Crisis, the Spanish philosopher José Ortega discussed the inner-workings of historical crisis. Through most of history, he said, the world changes gradually from generation to generation. The change is such that continuity is not disrupted. “An historical crisis,” wrote Ortega, “is a world change which differs from the normal change….” The system of convictions belonging to a previous generation “gives way to a vital state in which man remains without these convictions, and therefore without a world. Man returns to a state of not knowing what to think about the world. Therefore the change swells to a crisis and takes on the character of a catastrophe.” This is where we are today, in the United States and Europe. Look around and consider the prevailing cynicism. As Ortega noted, “One feels a profound disdain for everything, or almost everything, which was believed yesterday; but the truth is that there are no new positive beliefs with which to replace the traditional ones.” In a recent book titled Suicide of the West, authors Richard Koch and Chris Smith lament the collapse of Western optimism and positive belief. According to Koch and Smith, “Some Americans and some Europeans have betrayed or drifted away from the ideas and ideals that have made Western civilization so attractive and successful.” They further noted: “The West has gained hugely in economic unity, prosperity and military force, but declined markedly in social cohesion, moral force, certainty of purpose and mutual support and sympathy between America and Europe….” An historical crisis has begun. The old convictions have collapsed, and new ones have yet to appear.
With the end of the Cold War, America’s enemies have seemingly evaporated and new enemies have appeared. We are so confused by events, so uncertain in our interpretation, that we no longer properly identify the players or the plays. We no longer identify treason with those who advocate the defeat of their own country. We no longer identify sabotage with those who are attempting to destroy national industries (like timber, oil or agriculture). People on all sides invent their own convictions, ideologies and theologies. More often than not, these convictions merely reflect personal vanity, wishful thinking or neurotic fear. Through a gradual process, institutions are destabilized. The ground is always shifting as one ugly controversy gives way to the next. The scandal now brought forward by George Tenet, former Director of Central Intelligence, is a case in point. The public and the pundits are attracted to the sensation of a former U.S. government official blaming other government officials. What they miss entirely is the vital intelligence that Tenet off-handedly presents. Since they lack a solid foundation in what is what, in who is who, they cannot see what has remained through thick and thin; that is, the rightness of old convictions. Tenet’s book, At the Center of the Storm, touches on al Qaeda’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union. Tenet claims that al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahri and Abdel al-Aziz al-Masri, negotiated for three Russian nuclear devices in the 1990s. It is curious, indeed, that Zawahri and Masri were allegedly trained by Russia. In other words, they are likely to be Russian agents, working for Russian strategists. As this column has repeatedly pointed out, Zawahri has been named as a long-time KGB agent. And the man who fingered him was poisoned with polonium-210 last November, and died.
This is very serious business, and we need to pay attention. We should not assume that al Qaeda has Russian nuclear weapons. In fact, such weapons cannot be used without state sponsorship. Nuclear weapons built in Russia require permissive action codes to detonate. President Vladimir Putin has the codes, and his top general has the codes. Therefore, Russian nuclear weapons acquired on the black market cannot be used to attack anyone, unless Moscow gives away the codes. Anyone attempting to acquire Russian nuclear weapons would know this in advance, and would realize the futility of paying good money for nothing. It is more likely, in this case, that Russian strategists want us to believe that Arab terrorists have acquired nuclear weapons. And the reason for this should not be far to find. If we dared return to our Cold War convictions, we would see that something deadly is being set up (but not as advertised). If Russia decided to initiate a war with the United States, or conduct false flag terrorist operations, the American side would tend to misidentify the source of the attack. The United States would not retaliate against the attacking country because the United States would misidentify the attacker. This would lead to further errors in terms of national deployment, overall preparedness and strategic orientation.
The fact that Americans have lost their base of conviction, their firm foundation in recognizing hostile countries like Russia and China, plays into this scenario. We have been told again and again since 9/11 that Arab terrorists are the main threat to American security. But the main threat to the United States is from those countries that seek to replace the U.S. as the world’s leading power. According to José Ortega y Gasset, “With some shame we recognize that the greater part of the things we say we do not understand very well; and if we ask ourselves why we say them, why we think them, we will observe that we say them only for this reason: that we have heard them said, that other people say them. We have never tried to rethink them on our own account, or to find the evidence for them. On the contrary, the reason we do not think about them is not that they are evident to us, but that other people say them. We have abandoned ourselves to other people and we live in a state of otherness, constantly deceiving and defrauding ourselves.”
When asked by CBS journalist Scott Pelley whether al Qaeda has nuclear weapons, Tenet said he didn’t know. But he was worried, and he added that thousands of U.S. nuclear weapons might be rendered “irrelevant” by a terrorist nuclear arsenal because terrorists aren’t state actors and you cannot retaliate against them. Imagine how cunning this is: A clandestine formation appears out of Afghanistan and makes war on the United States. It is armed with Soviet weapons but somehow unconnected to Russia. Our old concepts are gone. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) is gone. The old Soviet enemy is gone. Or was that, in itself, another instance of saying that “we do not understand very well” something that we never “tried to rethink” on our own account? Americans never seriously thought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. We rushed to take that collapse at face value. “We have abandoned ourselves to other people,” said Ortega, “and we live in a state of otherness, constantly deceiving and defrauding ourselves.”
In October 1990 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was confronted by a journalist who asked about Lenin’s New Economic Policy [NEP], in which Soviet leaders deceived the West about the ultimate direction of the Soviet system in the 1920s. Gorbachev replied in a curious way, stating that “many people … failed to grasp the depth of Lenin’s design, perceiving the NEP at best as a tactical move.” It was, in fact, a strategic move. Gorbachev went on to explain that communism was not dying. It was in the process of reinventing itself. “This last is very important,” explained Ortega. “During periods of crisis, positions which are false or feigned are very common.”
Men live by conviction, or else – in the words of Ortega – they become “null and void.” Whether we like it or not, we must have convictions. Ideally, we ought to believe what is objectively true. And we should not allow our beliefs to be influenced by enemies. We cannot be so thoughtless, or drift so mindlessly, that we uncritically swallow questionable information about a future terrorist attack. This warning cannot be given enough, and should circulate throughout the United States of America and Europe. We are so accustomed to the collapse of old ideas that we look back with scorn at the mentality of the Cold War, at the mentality of Ronald Reagan. What if the Soviet Union was, indeed, a lethal threat? What if it continues, in changed form, to threaten the United States? Is this idea so strange, so bizarre, as to receive no hearing whatsoever
Let us give it a hearing, then.
© 2007 Jeffrey R. Nyquist
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