Governor Abbott Orders Alert for Texas Guard over large scale “Exercise” by Federal Troops called “Jade Helm 15”

Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive to the Texas State Guard to keep watch over the Texas  portion of a planned summer military operation in several Southwestern states —  giving  concerns about the federal military exercise official credence

Some fear President Obama is using the exercise as part of some kind of coup in the Southwest

According to a report in the New York Times, “...  In [Governor Anbbott’s] directive, issued last week to Maj. Gen. Gerald Betty, commander of the Guard, Mr. Abbott wrote that he wanted Jade Helm 15 monitored because it was ‘important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.’...”  (See “Conspiracy Theories Over Jade Helm Training Exercise Get Some Traction in Texas” by Manny Fernandez, 5/6/15, NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/us/conspiracy-theories-over-jade-helm-get-some-traction-in-texas.html?_r=0]).

The Times piece went on to say, “Mr. Abbott has defended his decision to monitor the exercise, denying that he was legitimizing conspiracy theories and explaining that he was responding to, and gathering information for, concerned Texans. ‘There was, frankly, an overreaction to the simple fact that someone has to be in charge with gathering and disseminating information,’ he told reporters on Monday. ‘And we stepped in to play that role, which is a role to be applauded.’...”

The eight-week exercise starting in July is planned for locations in Texas, New Mexico, California and other Southwestern states.

According to the NY Times, “The Army’s Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., announced the exercise in March, saying that while a multistate training operation was not unique, ‘the size and scope of Jade Helm sets this one apart.’ Jade Helm 15, according to military officials, amounts to a giant war game spread across the Southwest, with Army Green Berets and other elite personnel sharpening their skills in terrain they might find overseas. ***  Army officials said the operation would not be conducted at Fort Hood, the sprawling base in Killeen, Tex., but instead would take place in remote areas on ‘private and public land with the permission of the private landowners, and from state and local authorities.’ They said the most noticeable effect on local communities will be ‘an increase in vehicle and military air traffic and its associated noise.’...”

There are many questions being raised by right-wing bloggers and conservative commentators about the Pentagon training exercise. Some have said that Jade Helm 15 is part of a secret plan to impose martial law, take away people’s guns, arrest political undesirables, launch an Obama-led hostile takeover of red-state Texas, or do some combination thereof.

The Times article did not give a description of any of the exercises that are planned. However, some have described operations where local citizens in certain locations would be used to represent "hostiles"; and in some, special forces operatives would attempt to perform their missions among the "hostiles" undetected or without raising local concern. Critics have asked how would practicing under cover among local citizens, with the same language and culture in the southwest United States, would be an effective practicing tool for similar under cover operations among local populations in the Middle East.