Counter Jade Helm Operation, a group of civilian watchdogs, said they plan to observe and report military activity every day in each of the towns where Operation Jade Helm 15 is taking place.
“We are not the radical extreme groups,” Eric Johnston, Texas Director of Counter Jade Helm Operation said. “We’re not the people in camouflage carrying rifles and blocking street corners and waving signs. We are more of the neighborhood watch program.”
Johnston said the group was organized in April amidst the growing social media speculation surrounding Jade Helm.
“Almost every state people have responded from saying we want to be a part of this,” Johnston said, “and we utilize social media to be able to move our information back and forth to each other.”
Currently, there are 250 civilian volunteers in the Texas division of Counter Jade Helm. According to Johnston, their job is to keep an eye on the military training in each designated location, and report back any suspicious activity using social media.
“We need to be double checking,” Johnston said. “We need to stand up and we need to let people know that we will hold you accountable.”
Unlike Counter Jade Helm, many people used social media to poke fun of the hysteria surrounding Jade Helm. Soon after it was announced in April, the 8-week military program started trending on various social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter.
“In June there is large volume, and about a 7 to 1 public sentiment in favor of Jade Helm, with the conspiratorialists kind of taking the small part of that group,” Michael David, founder of Tasty Placement said. “This is an example of the purely democratic power of what is interesting to people.”
