Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was a classified scenario and drill developed by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

federal government to detain large numbers of United States citizens deemed to be "

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...

threats" in the event that the president declared a

National Emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

. The plan was first revealed in detail in a major daily newspaper by reporter Alfonso Chardy in the July 5, 1987 edition of the ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

''. Possible reasons for such a roundup were reported to be widespread opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad, such as if the United States were to directly invade

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. To combat what the government perceived as "subversive activities", the plan also authorized the military to direct ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels, according to Professor Diana Reynolds. Existence of master military

contingency plan A contingency plan, also known colloquially as Plan B, is a plan devised for an outcome other than in the usual (expected) plan. It is often used for risk management for an exceptional risk that, though unlikely, would have catastrophic conseque ...

s (of which REX-84 was a part), "

Operation Garden Plot The Department of Defense Civil Disturbance Plan, also known by its cryptonym GARDEN PLOT, was a general United States Army, US Army and National Guard of the United States, National Guard plan to respond to major domestic Civil disorder, civil dis ...

" and a similar earlier exercise, "Lantern Spike", were originally revealed by journalist

Ron Ridenhour Ronald Lee Ridenhour (April 6, 1946 – May 10, 1998) was an American known for having played a central role in spurring the federal investigation of the 1968 Mỹ Lai massacre in Vietnam. When he first learned of events there, he was serving i ...

, who summarized his findings in an article in '' CounterSpy''. Transcripts from the Iran–Contra hearings in 1987 record the following dialogue between Congressman Jack Brooks,

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...

's attorney

Brendan Sullivan Brendan V. Sullivan Jr. (born March 11, 1942, Providence, Rhode Island) is an American lawyer who is currently a senior partner in the law firm Williams & Connolly. Sullivan is a white-collar criminal defense attorney best known for his defens ...

, and Senator

Daniel Inouye Daniel Ken Inouye ( ; September 7, 1924 – December 17, 2012) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. Beginning in 1959, he was the first U.S. representative f ...

, the Democratic Chair of the joint Senate–House Committee: Contingency plans by the US Government for rounding up people perceived by the government to be subversive or a threat to civil order have existed for many decades. For example, from 1967 to 1971, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

kept a list of over 100,000 people to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "

ADEX The FBI Indexes, or Index List, was a system used to track American citizens and other people by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) before the adoption of computerized databases. The Index List was originally made of paper index cards, firs ...

" list.

References

{{Reflist See also "Martial Law Concerns," Congressman Jim McDermott, House of Representatives, March 11, 2003.

External links

Article by Frank Morales about Operation Garden Plot, the larger operation of which Rex 84 was a part. An edited version of this article appears in CovertAction Quarterly, #69 Spring/Summer 2000.

Civil detention in the United States Riots and civil disorder in the United States Continuity of government in the United States