Jade Helm Walmart investigation at Midland, Texas

Midland, Texas is in the heart of the Texas oil country. Founded in 1881 as the halfway point on the railroad between Fort Worth and El Paso, Midland was originally a cattle town. In 1923, oil was discovered there and the town boomed. Many of the downtown buildings still reflect the art deco construction of the 1920s and 1930s. The city gained fame in the early 2000s as the hometown of President George W. Bush. Today, Midland is feeling the effects of the most recent oil bust, but is even more famous for something else: a closed Walmart.

Until recently Midland was a two Walmart town. One store was located on the north side of town and another the south. That changed in April when the retailer suddenly closed the north side store along with other stores in Livingston, Texas, Pico Rivera, Calif., Tulsa, Okla., and Brandon, Fla. The Midland store closing included layoffs for most of the 456 employees according to the Dallas Morning News. The Midland Reporter-Telegram notes that the store will be closed for approximately six months. Other area businesses are concerned because they benefit from the customers that Walmart draws to the area.

Almost immediately, conspiracy theorists linked the sudden store closings to an upcoming military exercise, Jade Helm 15, set to take place in the southwestern states this summer. The conspiracy theorists fear that the exercise is a cover for the Obama Administration to implement martial law. This theory is based on a map in a military briefing that designates Texas as “hostile” for the purposes of the exercise.

The tie-in to Walmart stems from the company’s claim that the stores were closed because of plumbing problems. A Walmart statement said, “Each of these five locations had more than 100 plumbing problems reported over the last two years, the most out of our more than 5,000 stores in the U.S.” according to the Dallas Morning News.

An employee group disputes the plumbing claim. OUR Walmart filed a dispute with the National Labor Relations Board claiming that the stores were closed because of labor activism, noting that the Pico Rivera store was the first store where workers protested the company. The Dallas Morning News reports that the group is seeking an injunction to force Walmart to rehire the workers.

Last month, Examiner sent an investigative team to the Livingston, Texas Walmart to investigate reports of a military buildup in the store in conjunction with Jade Helm. Yesterday, the same team was sent to investigate the Midland store.

The closed Midland Walmart, like many Walmarts around the country, is in a high traffic area. The store is in a busy shopping area and several restaurants are adjacent to the parking lot. Another shopping center and more restaurants are across the street. A road runs along the back side of the Walmart and a gas station sits at the back corner of the store’s lot. The loading docks are easily visible to passersby. Any suspicious activity would be quickly noticed by the multitudes of diners and shoppers in the area.

Also unlike the Livingston Walmart, the Murphy Express gas station in Midland was still open for business. Most of the entrances to the Walmart parking lot were roped off, but there was still access from two sides. This allowed a steady stream of cars to purchase the Murphy Express’s cheap gasoline.

Unlike the Livingston Walmart, the Midland store is locked down and deserted. There were no cars or employees except for a solitary private security guard. When first glimpsed by the Examiner team, she was outside her truck, seemingly dozing on a shaded bench on the warm, Sunday afternoon.

When approached by the Examiner team, the guard said that she had not seen any suspicious activity and that there had been no sign of any military vehicles or personnel. She said that there had been quite a few civilians who were curious about the store closings and the conspiracy claims. She said that some of the other guards who had worked the night shift had reported suspicious civilians trying to find out what was inside the store.

The guard did not patrol inside the store, but said that, in the weeks after the closing, there had been many employees working inside to “take everything out,” presumably unsold stock as well as shelves and furnishings. More recently, there had been no activity at the store at all.

“It gets really boring,” she said.

Examiner was able to take photographs of every side of the store. There was no evidence of any other guards or activity. There were no military vehicles, either trucks or aircraft.

Previous reports of military vehicles and aircraft around the Midland Walmart, if not totally fabricated, may be easily explained. First, Walmart stores often allow trucks and recreational vehicles to park overnight. The large – now empty – parking lots with numerous restaurants in the proximity might also make an attractive stopping point for military convoys, especially since many Walmarts, including those in Livingston and Midland, are close to interstate highways.

In Midland, the presence of military aircraft can be explained by the proximity to Midland International Airport (KMAF). The map in the slide show shows that the closed Walmart is located about five miles from Midland International and under a common flight path for arriving aircraft. It would not be unusual to see both military and civilian aircraft flying low in this area. There do not seem to be any reports of military aircraft actually landing at the Walmart.

Texas is home to a multitude of military bases. Army vehicles and helicopters around Midland may well be traveling to or from Fort Hood, a large base some 200 miles away that is home to 1^st Cavalry Division as well as other units.

As with the Livingston Walmart, the Examiner team saw no reason to believe that there was any suspicious activity, military or otherwise, at the Midland Walmart. Differences in activity between Midland and Livingston may well reflect different stages in the process of removing items from the store and readying the buildings for renovation.

See the slideshow here.

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Baltimore riot conspiracies debunked

After every national tragedy, conspiracy theorists rush to fit the facts into their pet theories. The Baltimore riots are no exception. Among the many questions and claims being put forward on conspiracy sites are claims that the riots may be linked to Jade Helm 15 in preparing America for martial law. This in spite of the fact that Maryland is across the country from Jade Helm exercise area.

These theories hold that the riots in Baltimore are meant to instill fear and panic of a race war throughout the country. A posting sent in by a reader (tip of the tinfoil hat to Jason Doolin of Florida) seems representative of the conspiracy claims. “In case you missed it,” the post begins, “media focused on the few areas in Bmore [sic] where rioting took place and made it look like ww3 [sic] throughout the city. Meanwhile their ratings went through the roof and they paraded interviewees in front of the audience begging for the govt. to enact martial law in order to save them. This is known as PSYOPS aka conditioning.” The posting concludes, “Now the headline is martial law saved the city.”

Examining the claims, we find that the conspiracy is wrong on almost all counts. In many cases, it is true that media coverage of a small area can give the perception that devastation is much larger than it actually is. In the case of the Baltimore riots, however, a map published by the Baltimore Sun showing the violence of the first day of rioting shows that incidents occurred over a widespread area. According to the Sun, the violence began near Mondawmin Mall, located in the northwest section of the city, and spread towards downtown. The violence was worst on the west side of town, but there were a number of scattered incidents in eastern Baltimore as well.

None of the conspiracy sites seem to have an example of anyone “begging” for the government to enact martial law. Examples of black leaders inciting the riot, another claim in some articles, are easier to find. A frequently cited example is Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice, who was quoted in the New York Times on Saturday, April 25 as telling protesters to “Shut it down if you want to! Shut it down!” Shabazz said he was encouraging civil disobedience, not violence.

Others were more direct. On Monday, April 27, Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at Morehouse College, said on CNN, “There shouldn’t be calm tonight.” He added, “I think there can be resistance to oppression

In one infamous piece on Salon, Benji Hart wrote, “It is crucial that we see non-violence as a tactic, not a philosophy” and argued against the “slandering of protesters in Baltimore this weekend for not remaining peaceful.” Hart’s words were published on Tuesday, however, as the riot was already in full swing.

Some conspiracy sites claim that martial law was declared in Baltimore and that the National Guard was used to restore order. Indeed, a New York Times article with the headline “Martial law enforced in Baltimore” comes up in Google searches. Upon closer inspection, the dateline is April 23, several days before the start of the riots. Even closer inspection reveals that the year is 1861. The article is part of the Times online archives and refers to President Lincoln’s imposition of martial law to prevent Maryland’s secession at the onset of the Civil War.

In 2015, martial law was never declared. On Monday, April 27, Maryland governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency on the request of Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake according to CBS Baltimore.

Gen. Linda Singh, commander of Maryland’s National Guard told Real Clear Politics Monday night that “this is not martial law.” Singh went on to say that the National Guard troops were being deployed “in support of the police department, and are taking our direction from the police department….”

A Baltimore Sun report from Tuesday, April 28, indicated that 1,700 Guardsmen were deployed around the city. Some were in supporting roles while others provided backup for police responding to calls. At this point, there is no evidence that the Guard was involved in combat with looters and rioters, but their presence, as noted by Gizmodo, was clearly intended to intimidate the rioters and quell the violence.

It is worth noting here that the National Guard is not under the control of President Obama and the federal government. As noted on Military.com, in peacetime the National Guard answers to the civilian leadership of its state, not the president. The president can mobilize the National Guard and call them up for duty in wartime or an emergency. This makes the National Guard an unlikely component of a federal plan for illegal martial law.

There is also no evidence of headlines saying that the military response saved the city. Instead, the big story seems to be the inept response of Baltimore’s mayor, which is generating conspiracy claims of its own. A widely circulated quote by Mayor Rawlings-Blake purports to show that she purposely allowed the violence. On Saturday, April 25, the first day of the riots, she said, “We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”

On the surface, the quote seems damning, but when viewed in full context, her words take on a different meaning. Politifact provides her full remarks:

“We’ve had these kinds of conversations before, and I made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech. It’s a very delicate balancing act. Because while we try to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to de-escalate and that’s what you saw this evening.”

Mayor Rawlings-Blake was actually describing the unfortunate result of her attempt to protect the First Amendment right of peaceful protesters, not an intent to allow violent demonstrators to engage in destruction of property.

Another conspiracy blog points to a Fox News article that states that “between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore [were also] linked to the violence in Ferguson, Mo.” The article goes on to say that there was “a spike in message traffic in Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, with ‘protesters’ trying to get rides to Baltimore for Tuesday night.”

Rather than a government attempt at martial law, this social media traffic is more readily explained as “professional” protesters and outside agitators on the left. A number of protesters arrested in Ferguson last year were from distant liberal meccas like New York and Chicago according to USA Today. The social media traffic would seem to indicate that many militant leftists from neighboring cities were stoking the fires of Baltimore as well.

The argument that the riots were conditioning Americans to accept martial also seems questionable. The inability of the government to protect its citizens and their property for several days likely did little to inspire the confidence of most Americans in federal authority.

In reality, the aftermath of riots often inspires citizens to arm themselves. Last year’s riots in Ferguson led to dramatic increases in gun sales at nearby stores according to the Washington Post. Similarly, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 led to record-breaking gun sales noted the Los Angeles Times. If the government were truly planning to implement martial law, it would probably want to lull its citizens into a false sense of security, not send them scurrying to the gun store.

The conspiracy theorists did get one thing right. The riot coverage was a boon to television news networks. Variety reported that the top networks were CNN and Fox News, as is usually the case with breaking news. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut occasionally.

 

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Visit to a Jade Helm Walmart

Deep the heart of Texas, about an hour north of Houston up Highway 59, lies the small town of Livingston. According to the sign at the city limits, Livingston is the home to 5,335 people. There are numerous businesses and civic organizations including, until recently, a Walmart.

The closure of Livingston’s Walmart puts the small Texas town at the center of a conspiracy theory regarding an alleged plot to impose martial law on seven U.S. states this summer. The theory holds that a military exercise, codenamed “Jade Helm 15,” is a cover for soldiers to take positions across the southwest in order for the government to implement martial law. When Walmart announced five store closings earlier this month, including two in Texas and one in California, many websites arrived at the conclusion that the Walmarts were being coopted by the military either as staging areas for Jade Helm or detention areas for detainees who would be arrested under martial law. Examiner investigators went to Livingston, home of one of the two closed Walmarts in Texas, to look into these allegations.

The Livingston Walmart is located in a bustling business district about a quarter-mile from Highway 59. The area is heavily trafficked and there are numerous other businesses, both large and small, nearby. A Lowe’s home improvement store and HEB grocery store were both located within a short distance. Like many Walmart stores, this one appeared to have been built on the outskirts of town and drew other businesses around it.

The first impression upon arriving at Livingston’s Walmart is that the store is far from abandoned. The parking lot is relatively full of civilian vehicles. Blue-shirted Walmart associates walk to and from the building from their cars. There are also landscape crews in the parking lot.

The Livingston Walmart is a standalone super center. From a distance, the only indication that the store is not open are large white banners that say “store temporarily closed” that hang near the Walmart sign on the store front. The garden center, enclosed by a fence, is bare.

Across the parking lot is a Taco Bell that appears to be open. A separate strip mall to the west side of the parking lot contains several other businesses and is served by a separate parking lot. A Murphy Express gas station, a brand frequently collocated with Walmart, in the parking lot is also closed.

One of the two main entrances is closed. Employees are entering and exiting from the second. We approach the open door and enter through the open glass doors.

Inside, rather than the typical gaping cavern of a Walmart interior, there are temporary walls that form something like a lobby with two doors, one to each side, that lead to the interior of the store. Facing the exterior doors is a folding table with a sign that says “associate sign-in.” At the table sit a Walmart employee and a Livingston city policeman.

We identify ourselves as writers investigating the Jade Helm-Walmart connection and ask to speak with a store manager. The Walmart employee, a middle-aged blonde woman, answers that the managers are not answering questions or giving interviews.

We ask the pair if there has been any suspicious activity and the policeman answers, “Not that I’ve seen.” He adds, “Does it sound like any training is going on?”

The sounds coming from inside do not sound like training. They sound like construction. Drills, hammers and associated noises that would be consistent with a store renovation.

There are windows in the two doors that lead to the interior. What is visible through the windows, looks like a typical Walmart store.

We ask if they know when the store will reopen and both reply that they do not. The work going on inside makes it apparent that Walmart does plan to reopen the store, contrary to the fears of many local residents. KHOU 11 reported that many residents fear that the store is gone forever, along with 422 jobs. Losing the Walmart is a major blow to the local economy.

Taking our leave, we return to our vehicle and drive around the side of the Walmart to where the Tire and Lube Express is located. This entrance is closed as well. The only thing that looks unusual is a large group of pallets piled high with plastic bags marked as mulch, peat moss, and other garden products. These are likely destined for the empty garden center when the store is restocked.

Continuing to the rear of the store, we see… nothing. There are a couple of Walmart trucks at the store’s loading docks, but no people. As we drive around the store, we are unchallenged by police or security.

In light of the conspiracy theories, the most notable absence is any sign of military activity. In spite of some reports of soldiers, military vehicles and helicopters at or near the closed Walmarts, there was no sign of any military activity in Livingston, either near the Walmart or elsewhere. There are no convoys on the interstates, no trains filled with tanks, no uniformed personnel other than the one policeman, and no suspicious men loitering with strange bulges under their shirts. We don’t even see any AH-64 Apache helicopters, a common sight in this part of Texas due to the proximity of army bases and military flight training routes.

As a result of our investigation in Livingston, we have to conclude that there is no evidence to support the theory that Walmarts are being used in conjunction with the military Jade Helm exercise. In fact the only thing to support a connection between the two events, other than pure conjecture, is the timing and location of the store closings.

Even this connection is tenuous. Of the five store closings, only three are in states where Jade Helm will take place. Another closing is in Oklahoma, which borders the Jade Helm area, but the fifth is in Florida, on the other side of the country. Additionally, the closings began almost three months before Jade Helm’s kickoff on July 15. This may even mean that the renovations can be completed and the stores reopened before Jade Helm begins.

The biggest flaw in the conspiracy may be Walmart’s own claim that the store closings are due to plumbing repairs and renovations. It is unlikely that a major corporation would allow the federal government or other unknown forces to seize five stores without putting up resistance. In other cases of government overreach, businesses have fought federal mandates in the courts and won.

 

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Jade Helm is not precursor to martial law

Jade Helm 15, an upcoming military exercise in the southwestern United States is the latest example of alarmism by conspiracy mongers. Once again, conspiracy buffs are predicting the impending imposition of martial law in the United States. Once again, as a service to readers, I don my tinfoil hat to investigate the claims that Jade Helm 15 is part of sinister plot by mysterious forces.

Jade Helm 15 is a large, multistate special operations exercise that will take place from July 15 through September 15, 2015. A map showing the location of the exercise includes the states of Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. A small notation on the map, which was part of a slideshow by the US Army Special Operations Command detailing the exercise, is the source of much of the alarm over Jade Helm. The southwestern states are divided into “permissive,” “uncertain,” and “hostile” regions. Texas and Utah, two of the very reddest states in elections, are labeled as “hostile” red regions for the exercise.

The logical leap that Utah and Texas are hostile and will be invaded is nonsensical when viewed in the context of the rest of the map. Conservative Arizona is labeled as “leaning friendly” while liberal New Mexico is considered to be “leaning hostile.” Colorado, which just sent a new Republican senator to Washington is called “permissive” (friendly). The southern tip of blue California is red and marked as an “insurgent pocket.” There have been no actual reports of insurgent activity in the San Diego area.

Why is Texas singled out as hostile by the military planners of the exercise? The army slideshow (available in full on Gawker) provides an answer. “The United States Special Operations Command,” the slide reads, “has conducted numerous exercises in Texas, because Texans are historically supportive of efforts to prepare our soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors to fight the enemies of the United States.” In other words, the army is training in Texas because Texans are loyal supporters of the military in real life, the polar opposite of their role in the Jade Helm exercise.

The slideshow goes on to explain that Texas’ “large areas of undeveloped land with low population densities with access to towns” make an ideal training environment. It also cites the ability to have soldiers operate “outside normal support mechanisms,” adapt to “unfamiliar terrain, social and economic conditions,” operate “in and around communities where anything out of the ordinary will be spotted and reported” and “the opportunity to work with civilians to gain their trust and an understanding of the issues.”

The Fifth Column blog points out other flaws with the conspiracy theories surrounding Jade Helm such as that the other notes on the map refer to training organizations. “JOAX” is a joint operations access exercise.” “NSWTU” refers to a naval special warfare training unit. In an actual military operation, a NSWTU would be replaced by a Seal Team, designated as an “ST.”

Other unit designations refer to special operations units, which are not used for invasion and occupation roles. An “MSOT” is a Marine special operations team such as a Force Recon. ODAs are US Army Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha teams, also known as “A-Teams.” ODH and ODG are presumably Special Forces operational detachments as well.

The Fifth Column speculates that the exercise will be related to SERE training for survival, evasion, resistance and escape. This scenario might put special operations forces down behind “enemy” lines and have them attempt to make their way to friendly territory. Along the way, other units taking part in the exercise might attempt to capture and interrogate the special operations soldiers.

This idea is supported by other parts of the slideshow which note that “some individuals may conduct suspicious activities.” The army also says that “some participants will be wearing civilian attire and driving civilian vehicles.” The total local force will be approximately 60 people.

What of the seemingly sinister slogan on the Jade Helm logo, “master the human domain?” Many conspiracy theorists hold that this is a hint at Jade Helm’s true purpose, to psychologically condition Americans to accept the presence of military forces in preparation for the eventual implementation of martial law. The not-so-sinister answer can be found in an unclassified report by the US Army War College from 2013. The report, part of the civilian research project “Mastering the Human Domain,” details lessons from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on how special operations troops and conventional forces can better work together to gain support of the local population.

This concept of “winning hearts and minds” dates back to the Vietnam War and was instrumental in Iraq’s “Anbar Awakening,” in which the local population of Anbar province came to support the Coalition Forces and turn against the al Qaeda insurgents.

Further, the charge that the exercise is supposed to condition Americans to the acceptance of a large military presence makes no sense when the actual army statements are considered. With many participants in civilian clothes and vehicles, they would be indistinguishable from real civilians. Second, 60 soldiers is not a large force.

The military answered many of the conspiracy charges in a Stars and Stripes article. Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria of the US Army Special Operations Command said that Jade Helm was similar to past exercises. The primary difference, he said, was “the use of new challenging terrain,” which is similar to the regions where the special operations forces have been fighting. Presumably, this is a reference to Afghanistan and Iraq.

When asked about the idea that the exercise was a cover for a military takeover, Lt. Col. Lastoria answered, “That notion was proposed by a few individuals who are unfamiliar with how and why USASOC (US Army Special Operations Command) conducts training exercises. This exercise is routine training to maintain a high level of readiness for Army Special Operations Forces because they must be ready to support potential missions anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice.” Translated from military jargon, the colonel said that the conspiracy theorists don’t know what they are talking about.

 

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