US Military '1033 Program' — 'Obscure' Until Your Local Cops Get Tanks
When The Intercept spotlights the 'obscure' 1033 Program—responsible for funneling armored vehicles and spyware from the Pentagon to local police—it’s good reporting. But calling it 'obscure' at this stage feels like finding out the sky is blue. This program, which began in 1990 and expanded significantly post-9/11, has been arming American cops for decades. Remember Ferguson in 2014, with its
MRAPs and camouflage? That wasn't 'obscure'; it was a nationally televised spectacle of militarized domestic policing. The real story isn't just that this program exists, or that Trump might 'balloon' it further. It's the normalization of a standing army on American streets, a direct import of foreign policy applied domestically. After all, if the US can fund sophisticated surveillance and
military hardware for governments abroad, why wouldn't similar mechanisms eventually find their way home? One might wonder if the same policymakers who champion endless wars abroad also find comfort in having local forces equipped to quell dissent at home. It’s almost as if the 'global war on terror' was always intended to have multiple fronts, both foreign and domestic.