One only needs to look at the comments of soldiers put on the ground in the Katrina aftermath.
They were willing to shoot Americans, setup cehckpoints to confiscate weapons, and go block by block for a greater good.
Many of them were unhappy about it, but convinced themselves it was for the best, and certainly better than being a bad soldier and illegaly refusing to follow an order.
Last year a portion of the military was set aside just for domestic use. Primarily disaster support, whatever that disaster may be (including civil unrest.)
They were put under the command of United States Northern Command. Or NorthCom.
Northcom is entirely for domestic use, setup after 9/11 to respond to and control domestic situations.
In October 2008 they were given an Infantry division. The 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team.
Multiple detention facilities have been constructed across the United States under various government contracts. One such contract went to KBR. KBR is the former subsidiary of Halliburton, the company Dick Cheney was CEO of from 1995-2000.
A $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities."
That was just the initial contract and figure. Much more has been spent.
Numerous private "for profit" prisons have also been being built in recent years, ready to take prisoners from any source.
Private for profit prisons make more money the more people they have locked up. There is no incentive to reduce the prisoner population (like in state and federal prisons), and great incentive to increase it.
Since 9/11 there has been widespread domestic spying most people are not aware of because most lawsuits brought to court on it have been dismissed under "sovereign immunity".
At the same time the purchase of vhast data storage facilities in multiple states has been happening. With the Federal Government doing the purchasing.
Some such lawsuits were brought by the EFF or Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU.
It came to light super computers were being installed in most of the big communication giants, to monitor all electronic data.
Of course that amount of information is greater than any human being can review, so various software methods are used to red flag things for further review. Unless they have a need to review a specific source or person.
Most of the data can be stored for a length of time.
This data is not just internet traffic, but things like cell phone information. They can tell anywhere a phone has gone for the previous several months. Any Cell phone on the move is constantly getting reception from new cells, and record of where it is pinged is kept. You see this in many investigations today to review where a person was known to have been.
NarusInsight was the name of the system being installed in the major hubs of telecommunication giants like Verizon, AT&T, etc etc etc
Those companies acknowledged it, but said essentialy they could not discuss such things if they were going on because they would be a matter of national security. And more than implied they were under federal law not to discuss those things because they were going on.
A former AT&T employee who helped set one up even blew the whistle. Rooms requiring a security clearance were having all information sources routed through them.
http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
This was conducted by the NSA.
The head of the NSA during the time most of this was thought up and put into motion was Michael Hayden, appointed as head of the CIA under Obama.
Thier lawyers told them it was legal, so since under Soveriegn immunity nobody could challenge them, it was "legal". Great how that self review works?
between October 23, 2001, and October 6, 2008, resting on legal analysis that they now admit was "doubtful,"
the OLC took the unqualified position that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to domestic wiretapping conducted by a military entity
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/03/bush-administration-asserted-fourth-amendment-did-
There is much much more, and hundreds of citations and links to verify everything here.
It sounds like something some wierdo with a tin foil hat would have dreamed up back in the 90's, but it has been reality in the 2000's.
Everyone is tracked, most information is recorded. The only limitation is the ability to review it because it is such massive amounts of information.
As data storage capabilities increase however, more and more of the data can be stored for longer periods of time, just in case something is later red flagged.
Military personal are also learning a lot in places like Iraq in how to control a population even with elements of the population willing to resist (and they have RPGs.)
There is no question the army could be used for confiscation, and different sources of intelligence could make operations very successful. The only question is will they be. Probably not, hopefully not.