The National Security Agency (NSA) have denied rumors that a U.S. military exercise known as ‘Jade Helm’ was an attempt to prepare for an American civil war.
According to the former head of the NSA, Michael Hayden, the controversy surrounding the Jade Helm training exercise was exploited by the Russians to sow division in the American public.
Jade Helm officially began in the Spring of 2015, which the US army insisted was just a routine exercise at the time. Rumors immediately swirled that the military exercise was a prelude to martial law being declared in America, amid a total media blackout.
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The rumors stemmed from disturbing video footage that showed military, police and armed troops patrolling residential streets, harassing innocent civilians.
Statesman.com reports: “They took their game to North America in 2015, and I won’t belabor it here but there was an exercise in Texas called Jade Helm 15 that Russian bots and the American alt-right media convinced most — many — Texans was an Obama plan to round up political dissidents,” Hayden said. “It got so much traction that the governor of Texas had to call out the National Guard to observe the federal exercise to keep the population calm.”
(In April 2015, Abbott announced that he’d told the all-volunteer Texas State Guard — not the National Guard — to monitor the exercise, though aides said at the time he wasn’t buying into conspiracy theories. An Abbott spokeswoman at the time said Abbott “deeply trusts and respects the United States military.”)
Hayden said the success of the Jade Helm Russian provocateurs served as a template for eventual election interference.
“At that point, I’m figuring the Russians are saying ‘We can go big time’ and at that point I think they made the decision, ‘We’re going to play in the electoral process,’ ” Hayden said.
Abbott spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said Thursday the governor’s office would not comment on Hayden’s remarks.
The Texas Democratic Party issued a statement calling the 2015 decision to keep watch on the operation “downright idiocy.”
“Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was a Russian pawn and a useful idiot for Russian efforts to instill fear and distrust in our American institutions,” deputy executive director Manny Garcia said. “Gullible Texas Republicans turned against the United States.”
Sean Adl-Tabatabai
The Texas governor knows you cants trust the govt, if they are running wargames in you locale (illegally) there is a good chance they will flip the script and attack the populace. The National Guard being onsite may be the only thing that saved Texas from great turmoil.
Far from routine and especially not in the huge scope of the area it involved. American citizens did not appriciate it any more than the excersizes in cities with approval of Mayors or city councils but no notice given to the citizenry , who would wake up to the sounds of gunfire and scenes of military in the streets advancing door to door, and some streets blocked off. At least Jade Helm was announced. Interjecting Russia, Russia , Russia, into it only makes the government propagandists look like idiots.