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" 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.
See also
*
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...
*
FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
*
Huston Plan
The Huston Plan was a 43-page report and outline of proposed security operations put together by White House aide Tom Charles Huston in 1970.Main Core
Main Core is an alleged American government database containing information on those believed to be threats to national security.
History
The existence of the database was first asserted in May 2008 by Christopher Ketcham and again in July 200 ...
*
Mariel boatlift
The Mariel boatlift () was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between 15 April and 31 October 1980. The term "" (plural "Marielitos") is used to refer to these refugees in both Spanish and En ...
*
No Fly List
The No Fly List maintained by the United States federal government's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) is one of several lists included in algorithmic rulesets used by government agencies and airlines to decide who to allow to board airline flight ...
*
Non-Detention Act
The Non-Detention Act of 1971 was passed to repeal portions of McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, specifically Title II, the "Emergency Detention Act". The United States statute repealed the Emergency Detention Act of 1950 provisioning the Un ...
*
NSPD-51
The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20, sometimes called simply "Executive Directive 51" for short), signed by Presiden ...
*
Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists ...
*
Posse Comitatus Act
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (, original at ) signed on June 18, 1878, by President Rutherford B. Hayes which limits the powers of the federal government in the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic p ...
*
Terrorist Screening Database
The Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) is the central terrorist watchlist consolidated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Terrorist Screening Center and used by multiple agencies to compile their specific watchlists and for screening. The l ...
*
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