[5] The precursor agency to FEMA was the Federal Civil Defense Administration established by President Harry S Truman in 1950 with Executive Order 10186.
[2] The theory in general states that once a disaster, or threat of one occurs, martial law will be declared and FEMA's emergency powers will come into operation, and it will effectively become the government.
[4] Extreme versions state that plans are in place to imprison and kill apolitical American citizens in camps as part of a "population control" plot.
[12] One of the first known references to FEMA concentration camps comes from a newsletter issued by the Posse Comitatus organization in 1982, with the warning that "hardcore patriots" were to be detained in them.
The self-styled congressional analyst David Fletcher was their spokesman and brought it up in meetings, even pointing out "United Nations Reserves" that the government was building camps for in the Northern Cascades.
[1] Fears of FEMA declined in the early 2000s as foreign terrorists were perceived as the major threat but the late-2000s recession and the election of Barack Obama renewed opposition among conservatives and libertarians to the federal government.
[22] In 2015, fears of the FEMA roundup beginning surfaced with the announcement of a domestic military training operation called Jade Helm 15.
[24] Also in 2015, additional speculation about the theory was stoked by retired general Wesley Clark when he called for World War II-style internment camps to be revived to combat Muslim extremism.
[26][27] Conspiracy theorists have used the actual internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in specifically constructed camps as evidence that such a scenario has historic precedent.
[2] Proponents have cited a contingency plan (Rex 84) drafted in part by U.S. Marine Colonel Oliver North calling for the suspension of the Constitution and the detainment of citizens in the event of a national crisis.
In 2012, Jones linked to a story titled "List of All FEMA Concentration Camps in America Revealed" from the German UFO conspiracy website Disclose.tv.
[14] FOX News personality Glenn Beck did a 2009 interview with James Meigs, editor-in-chief of "Popular Mechanics", during which he debunked the existence of one purported camp.