Despite city officials and the Secret Service refusing to confirm that they gave the Red Cross an order to prepare for the evacuation of Chicago during the upcoming NATO summit, Benedictine University is just one of dozens of institutions preparing to receive thousands of evacuees.

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“Benedictine is one of dozens of colleges, universities, community centers or churches standing by just in case Chicagoans must leave their homes because of violence or any other reason connected to the NATO summit,” reports CBS Chicago.

However, as we reported last week, authorities have refused to even acknowledge that they told the American Red Cross to make such preparations, despite Red Cross volunteers in the Milwaukee area receiving an email instructing them that, “The American Red Cross in southeastern Wisconsin has been asked to place a number of shelters on standby in the event of evacuation of Chicago.”

According to a chapter Red Cross spokesperson, “Our direction has come from the City of Chicago and the Secret Service.”

The Benedictine campus has been instructed to prepare for anything up to a thousand evacuees, with university officials pushing back bleachers and clearing floor space for cots.

Precisely what kind of incident would require thousands of people to be evacuated from areas of Chicago during the NATO summit has not been explained. The entire area around the summit will be in complete lock down with protests only allowed in designated “free speech zones”.

In addition, highways and roads will be blocked off with checkpoints whiletrain passengers will face TSA-style pat downs and bag searches. A shoot-to-kill no fly zone will also be enforced over the city during the summit which runs from May 20 to May 21.

The whole spectacle appears to be an effort to whip up fearmongering as a prelude to the kind of police state showcase witnessed at previous global summit such as the G20 meeting held in Pittsburgh in 2009.

In a related story, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has “revoked permission” for a May 18 Daley Plaza rally set to begin a week before the NATO summit. Quite how Emanuel has the power to revoke the First Amendment is unclear, but the National Nurses United group that planned the demonstration have labeled the move a “violation of free speech” and planned to fight back.

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.