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Depending on whom you ask, “Jade Helm 15” is either a domestic military training exercise or a covert operation for the federal government to take over the state of Texas – and 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz just became the latest Republican to fan the flames of the latter theory.Speaking at the South Carolina Republican Party’s annual convention Saturday, the Texas senator told Bloomberg’s David Weigel that his office had contacted the Pentagon about the exercise, which officially consists of a series of training drills throughout the Southwest for about 1,200 special operations personnel, including Green Berets and Navy SEALs. Conspiracy theorists operating on the fringes of the conservative blogosphere, however, have other ideas about what the exercise, known as Jade Helm 15, is intended to do – such as implement martial law, seize Americans’ guns, and imprison political dissidents.
Over the summer, the U.S. military is launching a training exercise called “Jade Helm 15,” which ordinarily wouldn’t generate any headlines at all. It’s a series of training drills throughout the Southwest, from Texas to California, for about 1,200 special operations personnel, including Green Berets and Navy SEALs. In some right-wing circles, however, “Jade Helm 15” is the basis for an extraordinary conspiracy theory. The idea gets a little convoluted – fringe theories often are – but the unhinged activists apparently believe the Obama administration, in conjunction with the U.S. military and Wal-Mart, is planning to impose martial law on much of the country. As they see it, the plan also includes gun confiscation and “secret underground tunnels.” The whole thing is pretty nutty, even by 2015 standards, but the conspiracy theory has been so widely disseminated that some Republican policymakers feel the need to take it seriously. This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered the Texas Guard to “monitor” the military exercises – just in case.
