FBI telegraphs fear of militias & preppers by trying to intimidate surplus stores into demanding ID for purchasing items like ammo boxes & MREs.

FBI Handout Lists Purchase of Preparedness Items as “Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities”.

The way to counteract this is simple. If your local surplus store starts asking for ID for items that the law does require it, tell them to go to hell. Something Oathkeepers ought to do is create a list of stores who have publicly refused to be stampeded by this obvious attempt to coerce them. More comments below.

An FBI Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force handout being distributed to Colorado military surplus store owners lists the purchase of popular preparedness items and firearms accessories as “suspicious” and “potential indicators of terrorist activities,” instructing store owners to keep records on and report people who:

“Make bulk purchase of items to include:

Weatherproofed ammunition or match containers

Meals Ready to Eat

Night Vision Devices; night flashlights; gas masks

High capacity magazines

Bi-pods or tri-pods for rifles”

The FBI handout, entitled “Communities Against Terrorism: Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Military Surplus Stores” also instructs surplus store owners to:

“Require valid ID from all new customers.

Keep records of purchases.

Talk to customers, ask questions, and

listen to and observe their responses.

Watch for people and actions that are out of place.

Make note of suspicious statements, people, and /or vehicles.

If something seems wrong, notify law enforcement authorities.”

The handout also instructs surplus store owners to consider as “suspicious” anyone who “demands identity ‘privacy’” or anyone who expresses “extreme religious statements” and those who “make suspicious comments regarding anti-US, [or] radical theology.”

The “Communities Against Terrorism” flyer closes by stating:

Preventing terrorism is a community effort. By learning what to look for, you can make a positive contribution in the fight against terrorism. The partnership between the community and law enforcement is essential to the success of anti -terrorism efforts.

Some of the activities, taken individually, could be innocent and must be examined by law enforcement professionals in a larger context to determine whether there is a basis to investigate. The activities outlined on this handout are by no means all-inclusive but have been compiled from a review of terrorist events over several years.

The handout encourages surplus store owners and employees to provide information on “suspicious” customers by calling the Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force or the Colorado Information Analysis Center. This handout is very nearly identical to one issued by the FBI to gun stores from Connecticut to Utah: PDF

This new handout expands the absurdity by now also targeting customers of military surplus stores, and by specifically targeting the purchasing of very common, and very popular, preparedness items such as Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) as “potential indicators of terrorist activities.”

While this particular handout is being given to military surplus store owners in Colorado, it is nearly certain that similar versions are being handed out by Joint Terrorism Task Forces in other states. Anyone who has seen such a handout, or who has a copy of one, please contact us at tips@oathkeepers.org. You know, “if you see something, say something!” It may be a potential indicator of government terrorist (tyranny and chilling of speech) activities. Remember, combating tyranny is a community effort and you can make a difference! – Oath Keepers

And commenting on the OK piece, we have this from alt-market.com:

Obama Readies Citizen Spies For Action.

These are very common purchases, not for terrorists, but for Preppers and Survivalists, who are obviously the targets of the FBI profile, not secret Al-Qaeda agents. The handout goes on to list behaviors such as “making anti-U.S. or radical theological comments (?)” or “insisting on paying in cash”, as signs of terrorism. It even instructs store owners to subtly interrogate their customers in order to draw a fuller profile. THIS IS CALLED CITIZEN SPYING. Period.

The FBI Denver Handout is a perfect example of the oligarchic quest not for community participation, but for hardcore collectivism. That is to say, corrupt leaderships are not interested in community safety, or the elevation of individuals which make up a neighborhood, town, or city, but the manipulation of these people into mere extensions of the state itself. A procedure by which individuals are subdued and conscripted as mouthpieces and listening devices; weapons to be used, not to safeguard their community, but to enslave it.

The Counter Extremism Program falsely paints an image of community cooperation with federal agencies as balanced and mutual. It attempts to deflect fears of Orwellian oversight by suggesting the introduction of “Community Advisory Boards”, which would ostensibly wield the power to demand transparency in federal activities. In fact, such advisory boards are the perfect petri dish in which to condition local leaders into furthering the goals of centralization. As in despotic societies of the past, they go in thinking they are in charge, and come out as brainscrubbed servants of a dishonest regime. In this way, communities are pacified and wielded for state purposes, until those left who refuse to conform become utterly surrounded and fearful, never knowing who is and who is not watching their every move.

The fact that the Fibbies are doing this simply telegraphs their own fear of the constitutional militias and others who are self-sufficient and prepared.

LATER: David Codrea's comments here.