From the Piedmont Trading Post June 29-July 5, 1994 page 3 FOREIGN COMBAT VEHICLES SPOTTED ACROSS THE U.S. You haven't been seeing things. There have been a number of strange military- related maneuvers around the country lately. by Mike Blair The SPOTLIGHT has obtained irrefutable evidence that hundreds - perhaps thousands - of foreign vehicles and armor are in the United States, including vehicles intended for use by the UN. At the same time, President Bill Clinton has signed new Executive Orders, giving wide-range new powers to th UN to command U.S. military forces and delegating new powers to the National Security Council and the office of National Security Advisor to the President, a post currently held by Anthony Lake. Hundreds of railroad flatcars bearing Russian military vehicles and armor and some UN vehicles and armor have been spotted in several states, including Montana, Colorado and Wyoming in the West and Pennsylvannia in the East. In addition, in Mississippi, hundreds of Russian-built vehicles, obtained from what was formerly East Germany and apparently being refurbished for the UN, are located in a massive depot. Many of the vehicles were designed for chemical and biological warfare purposes. PHOTOS OBTAINED The SPOTLIGHT has obtained photographs of railroad flatcars filled with Russian and UN trucks and armor spotted in the Western states, along with others taken of the massive depot in Mississippi. The SPOTLIGHT has also obtained copies of bills of lading for Russian vehicles obtained for UN purposes from what was formerly East Germany, which have been shipped to the United States, landing at Gulfport dock facilities in Mississippi and driven to the depot, located three miles south of Saucier, and 45 miles north of Biloxi, along Mississippi Highway 49. The depot is surrounded with a chain-link fence, topped with barbed wire, and guard dogs are reported to be used to protect the area from intruders. A videotape taken of the area and obtained by the SPOTLIGHT shows dozens of the vehicles, including several chemical and biological warfare decontamination trucks that have been painted white, presumably for UN use. The bill of lading, indicating that the vehicles were obtained through a West German firm operating under the name of Beesch Merkator, lists dozens of Russian-built military trucks intended for UN purposes. The vehicles include several varieties of Russian ZIL-131 heavy trucks, including some listed to be of the ARS-14 type, which are chemical and biological warfare decontamination vehicles, and two varieties of ZIL-157 heavy trucks. OTHERS AT DEPOT However, photographs obtained by The SPOTLIGHT of the truck depot near Saucier also include other Russian-built trucks, including some of what appear to be the MAZ-500 series. A detailed report has been obtained that confirms a large road, about 35 feet in width, has been built to connect the truck depot with the Stennis NASA Space Center, located about 20 miles southeast of the depot near the Mississippi-Louisiana border. There have also been reports that the vehicles are being shipped by barges on the Pearl River, which runs along the border of the tow states, north to some unknown destination. Late last March, a train with 100 flatbed cars bearing Russian-type jeeps, trucks and U.S. armored personnel carriers, some painted white with UN markings on their sides, were seen and photographed at a railroad crossing at Rye Gate, Montana, about 10 miles north of interstate Route 12, south of eaternmost section of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, and about 60 miles northeast of Bozeman. RUSSIAN ARMOR On the train were Russian BMP-40 armored cars, loaded four to a flatcar. The BMP-40 was designed for urban warfare and as a rapid-assault offensive vehicle. Protruding from the vehicle's turrets could be seen short barreled 75 millimeter cannons. The Soviets also equipped the vehicles with Sagger anti-tank missiles. The armored cars are built for amphibious use. Also on the train were Russian UAZ-469B light jeep-like, vehicles, what appear to be more ZIL-131 trucks and KamAZ 5320 Russian trucks. Some of the flatcars were loaded with American-built M113 armored personnel carriers, some of which were painted white and bore the letters "UN" on the sides. On May 29 at about 6 pm, a long train of 100 flatcars loaded with tanks and armored vehicles, some of which were believed to be of foreign manufacturers, was spotted heading from the northeast toward the west along Horseshoe Curve at Altoona, Pennsylvania. Then on May 31 at about 2 am, whay may have been the same train was seen by an Air Force police officer returning to Malstrom Air Force Base at Great Falls, Montana, while he was driving through Wheatland, Wyoming, about 60 miles north of Cheyenne. TRAINS GUARDED At the crossing in Wheatland, according to the airman, three trains were stopped, two heading north and one heading south, to allow an eastbound train to pass. While the three trains, all of which carried military vehicles, were stopped, they were guarded, according to the airman, by soldiers in black field uniforms. The three trains were carrying what he said were armored vehicles, some of which attracted his attention because they were painted white. Due to the darkness, he could not identify the vehicles as to type or origin. Two days later, what was thought to have been one of the northbound trains was spotted on a siding at Sun Prarie, north of Great Falls, Montana. Another report sighting of a long train loaded with military vehicles was reported in Colorado at about the same time. Meanwhile, five train-loads of armored vehicles have been reported to have arrived at Fort Chafee, Arkansas, where observers have spotted large stockpiles of barbed wire and the recent arrival of some 5,000 mattresses. Sources estimate that there are currently from 2,000 to 3,000 armored vehicles at Fort Chafee. After thousands of supposed Cuban refugees were allowed into the United States by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, many who were found to be mental patients and criminals were confined at Fort Chafee, which is, along with Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, and Fort Drum, New York, among locations that have been secretly selected as detention centers for dissidents during some future declared "national emergency," according to persistent rumors.