One of the more persistent conspiracy theories on the Web involves the claim that prison camps are being set up on U.S. soil under the auspice of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).

So Glenn enlisted the help of Popular Mechanics to help separate fact from fiction.

Here's what they found:

1. North Korea/Wyoming Detention Center

CLAIM: "There is a minimum of one confirmed concentration camp built on American soil in rural Wyoming. … The (Department of Homeland Security) accidentally placed these photos on a publicly accessible portion of their website … (but) they were pulled within one hour. … The images are not gone forever though."

FACT: These are legitimate images of prisons and forced-labor camps -- in North Korea. The images were taken from a report about the camps prepared by a human rights organization, then someone manipulated the headers, photo dates and annotations. Here's one of the original photos, of a camp near Kaechon, North Korea, showing a dorm for prisoners, shoe-making shops, and guard towers. In the fake, the original map and coordinates in the upper-right corner have been covered by a poorly pasted DHS logo. The whole thing may have been a hoax -- the name of the made-up facility, "Swift Luck Greens," is an anagram for "Left Wing Suckers" -- but it's evidence that once things get passed around the Internet, it's like a game of telephone where context no longer matters and the wildest theory wins.

2. Camp Grayling National Guard training center

CLAIM: "More (evidence of) Concentration Camps in America for Americans. Yes, they are real. More (photographic) proof … read it and weep, it's coming!"

FACT: Camp Grayling, located in northern-central Michigan, is the largest National Guard training center in the U.S. The National Guard, active and reserve components of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard all train there, practicing everything from helicopter gunnery to demolition. According to a major with the Michigan National Guard we spoke to, this "camp" is used by Military Police to train for processing and care of prisoners of war. One of the military police units trained there just returned from a yearlong deployment in Iraq, overseeing a POW facility there. This is also evidence of the lifespan of these theories: Far from being new or even inspired by post-9/11 government buildup, officials we spoke with first saw these photos in 1999.

3. Beech Grove Amtrak facility

CLAIMS:

A) "The Amtrak Railcar Repair Facility at Beech Grove, Ind., contains … high security NSA-style people turnstiles, and high intensity/security lighting for 24-hour operation…. These buildings have been 'sealed' airtight and constructed to allow gas to be blown into all the buildings via the newly installed, two-story, hot air heating furnaces…. [T]he (jobs) of … Americans who were laid off there will be filled with foreigners, who will have no qualms about gassing Americans in the newly renovated gas chambers, in the Dachau and Auschwitz of America."

B) Video material

> Timecode: 2:03-2:15 / 2:30-2:50: "This small building is the only way into a particular fenced area. Inside this building, we see more of the motion-activated detectors, electronic turnstiles, and prison bars. … All of the renovations to this property have involved putting in new fencing, electronic turnstiles, concrete flooring in unused warehouse buildings, and putting in large gas furnaces in buildings that were never heated anytime in the past 20 years."

> Timecode: 4:10-4:40: "In yet another fenced area, we see a large warehouse building at the end with the electronic turnstiles in front of it. The building is one that has a new concrete floor -- and its doors and windows have all been blocked. Outside there are new gas pipes."

> Timecode: 4:57-5:17: "The gas lines and gas pipes at the facility run the length of the buildings -- and come out at some very, very large brand-new furnaces that have been installed at the buildings throughout the facility."

FACTS:

This footage, which appears in multiple videos on YouTube, is from a "documentary" filmed 15 years ago. Yet today, it's been viewed nearly 1.5 million times online. The woman who made the video, Linda Thompson, was one of the pioneers of the militia movement in the United States -- except she was so extreme, she embarrassed even her fellow militants. Far from a death camp, Beech Grove is the primary maintenance facility for Amtrak's long-distance trains, overhauling and repairing approximately 700 passenger cars a year. Company officials, who've heard these theories for years, welcomed our film crew, and the superintendent of the facility showed us anything we wanted to see.

> The turnstiles and "prison bars": What's seen in the YouTube clip was the company's initial attempt at an electronic system to clock in and out its 500 employees. They're basically just a pair of subway turnstiles. As the technology evolved, so too did the Amtrak infrastructure: There are no more bars to funnel employees through one set of gates; now there are electronic kiosks across the property where workers can clock in and out.

> The "large warehouse" with windows and doors that are blocked: When the original footage was filmed, the "Coach 3" building, one of three original repair facilities on the property, was in the process of being emptied and the work consolidated into the other two massive warehouses on the property. That's why it was boarded up. Ultimately, "Coach 3" was demolished about seven years ago.

> New gas pipes and furnaces: In 1993, the existing centralized power plant for steam heat was deemed too expensive and inefficient. That year, the company upgraded to localized forced-air gas heaters. (Hence the "new gas pipes" seen in 1994.) While doing the upgrade, the company rerouted the gas lines from a front entrance to the back of the buildings.

4. Executive orders

CLAIM: "FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation." (The site then lists 14 executive orders as examples.)

FACT: In 1962, while juggling conflicts with Cuba, Vietnam and the potential for nuclear war with the Soviets, President Kennedy signed a series of executive orders that outlined the basic framework for agency responsibilities during a national emergency. Most of those have since been revoked, or rolled into a single, more comprehensive executive order signed by President Reagan. Safeguards were written into the current framework of responsibilities, declaring that any emergency preparation or actions "shall be consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States." The idea of the government seizing all your farmland or forcing Americans into labor camps is simply without basis -- except in Hollywood. In 1998, the plot to the X-Files movie was that FEMA was preparing to suspend the Constitution and act as a nefarious "shadow government."

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