Republished from ‘An Internal Pandemic Document Shows the Coronavirus Gives Trump Extraordinary Powers’ by Ken Klippenstein
A leaked Customs and Border Protection directive allows the agency to actively surveil and detain individuals suspected of carrying the illness—indefinitely.
Aside from detention, the document also describes the forms of surveillance and intelligence gathering CBP is authorized to conduct during a pandemic. In many cases, these CBP personnel have not even been given medical training.
“CBP will monitor domestic and international intelligence information to provide continuous situational awareness of national threats.”
The document goes on to describe how any intelligence that CBP collects is to be disseminated at the highest levels of the agency in a “bi-weekly pandemic influenza briefing to the Commissioner and senior CBP personnel and as needed or required in light of new intelligence developments.”
Repeated reference is also made to the fear of terrorists weaponizing the 2007 pandemic. One passage describes how CBP intelligence operations will “monitor terrorist groups for possible attempts to cause an intentional pandemic.”
“Smugglers and terrorists will seize this opportunity to further their own interests. This includes the potential for bio-terrorist use,” the document notes, in a list of “assumptions.”
A number of other startling assumptions are contained within the document.
One passage states:
“Many Americans will die from the virus, spreading fear and panic among the population, including CBP employees…. Pandemic influenza is expected to cause massive disruptions in travel and commerce, and may challenge the essential stability of governments and society. In spite of this, CBP must continue to carry out its priority mission to prevent the entry of terrorists and their weapons, regardless of the circumstances.”