Former Marine Detained for ‘Ominous’ Facebook Posts Speaks Out for the First Time: ‘It Made Me Scared for My Country’

Jason Howerton

The former Marine who was detained by federal and local law enforcement over a number of controversial Facebook posts is speaking out for the first time since a judge ordered he be released from a psychiatric ward in Salem, Va. last Thursday.

Brandon Raub, 26, spoke with John Whitehead, his lead attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute, and recounted his frightening ordeal, saying he is “afraid” for his country that an American citizen can be detained without due process.

Raub was put in handcuffs and hauled away from his home in Richmond, Va. by federal and local law enforcement officials on Aug. 16 for making anti-government Facebook posts referring to “revolution” and statements that questioned the official story behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was then sentenced to up to 30 days in a psychiatric facility on Aug. 20 by a judge — no trial, no arrest warrant, no charges filed.

He was held under Virginia’s “civil commitment” law that allows police to detain an individual that is extremely mentally ill and may present an imminent threat to himself or others.

Throughout the interview with Whitehead, Raub appears to be coherent and completely aware of his surroundings. On the surface, he certainly doesn’t appear to be suffering from a mental disorder. However, Whitehead recently told TheBlaze that he is seeking to have Raub evaluated by an independent psychiatrist to prove that.

The military veteran explained why he decided to serve his country as a Marine and what led to him posting the controversial remarks that resulted in his detention.

“I got out of high school in 2004 and I worked for a year, and then I looked at what was going on around the world and saw how my brothers and sisters were volunteering to go overseas and I love my country quite a bit, so I figured that I kind of had a place in that,” Raub said. “I always knew if I joined the service, it would be the Marine Corps.”

Raub served in both Iraq and Afghanistan as a combat engineer where he located improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and built field fortification systems.

“Originally, I never imagined that there would be problems to the degree we have or things going on — that are easy to find if you are told to go look for them. Very specifically, the rampant abuse of executive orders,” he explained. “It literally gives the president the ability to write his own laws.”

He went on: “What really concerned me was the length of time that we’ve had executive orders on record that will allow the federal government to seize private property, industry, even language denoting labor camps — that’s real language in real executive orders.”

Brandon Raub (L) and John Whitehead (R) (Source: YouTube)

Raub also addressed arguably his most controversial Facebook post, where he proclaimed, “Sharpen my axe, I’m here to sever heads.” He says it was a metaphor and lyric from a Canadian rap song.

“The truth is very powerful and it has the ability to cut, and the truth is not always nice, sometimes it can be very specific,” he said of the statement..

The Detainment

Raub took his attorney step-by-step through the morning he was taken away in a police car. He says he initially spoke to two FBI agents through his front screen door in his shorts. However, he added that there was law enforcement “stacked all up and down the road.”

“They didn’t say very much, I actually had to ask them why they were there,” Raub said.

The most disturbing part, he explained, is that police didn’t say anything about a search warrant or arrest warrant, they said they were just there to “talk” but ended up transporting him to a mental hospital.

Raub said the FBI, Secret Service and local police all showed up that day. They seemed concerned about some of his Facebook posts but weren’t specific.

“A secret service agent asked me to step outside and talk to him and out of my own free will, I went out into the street and spoke with them,” the former Marine said. He added there was one Secret Service agent leading the conversation. They spoke for 10-15 minutes about “some of the stuff going on in the government,” including the Bilderberg Group, a secret group that some believe control the policy of most major world governments. Officials recently confirmed that they had received a number of complaints about some of Raub’s “ominous” Facebook posts.

Raub and his attorney skipped over the fact that Raub is a 9/11 “truther” and did not mention it during the interview. Nonetheless, being a “truther” is not against the law and the First Amendment protects all speech, not just speech that is uncontroversial.

Following the conversation, the cops surrounded Raub and detained him.

“Did they say, ‘sir here are your Miranda rights?” Whitehead asked.

“No, they just started grabbing me.”

Raub said he was not physically or mentally assaulted by police, however, they refused to let him put on a shirt or shoes.

“I’m pretty tough, so I rolled with the punches. But it made me scared for my country that a man can be snatched out of his property without being read his rights, I think it should be very alarming to all Americans,” he said.

Raub also confirmed a recent claim made by Whitehead on Glenn Beck’s show on TheBlazeTV that one of the psychiatrists at the Salem psychiatric center threatened to “brainwash” him and force medication on him unless he followed orders.

After the terrifying incident, Raub is convinced that Americans are living in a society similar to the one found in George Orwell’s classic novel “1984.”

“If you read ‘1984’…in that society there was something called the ‘Ministry of Truth.’ Bill Clinton very recently went on record and said that he believed there should be a Ministry of Truth in this country to monitor the internet,” said Raub.

“It’s a government that I loved,” he added, saying he still “absolutely” wants truth to prevail within the federal government.

Raub reiterated that people should take “peaceful” and “non-violent” methods to educate themselves and disseminate information about what is going on in the United Sates.

Watch the entire interview via the Rutherford Institute here:

This article first appeared at The Blaze

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