What's A Posse Comitatus?
By Cernig Monday Dec 01, 2008 6:30pm
Can anyone say "mission creep"? The military always can, which is why a new initiative to give the Pentagon an ability to surge a combat-ready force for domestic security is so worrying.
The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist
attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.
There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.
But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
They can say it all they want, but that doesn't make it so. And more to the point, the Bush administration knows it. Their analysts have already given them a half dozen scenarios involving WMD level casualties without actually using WMDs, exploiting LNG tankers, blowing up a big enough bomb next to an existing reactor or using other everday aspects of the nation's industry and commerce. All are easier to pull off than smuggling a bomb, or radioactives, into the country or than gathering a sizeable store of such material from domestic sources without discovery.
And the point is that predicting and preventing such attacks should be the job of civilian agencies, not the military - and so should dealing with any aftermath. Political scientist Dr. Steven Taylor writes:
There are two key problems here. The first is that the function of the military isn’t domestic security and second, the military is already rather busy at the moment (and for the foreseeable future).
First, the military isn’t designed or trained for domestic responses. Training for a nuclear attack or an invasion is one thing, assigning an active-duty combat brigade to a specifically domestic task is yet another.
Indeed, one of the command centers the Bush administration has green-lighted, based on Hawaii, is specifically tasked with overseeing the military's response to an outbreak of human-strain avian flu. Another in South Carolina is tasked with earthquake response. No terrorists in sight.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.
Domestic emergency deployment may be “just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,” or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU’s National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security.
“There’s a notion that whenever there’s an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green,” Healy said, “and that’s at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace.”
The military already gets the lion's share of the intelligence budget - over 80%. Back in 2005, even Saxby Chambliss was writing for the neocon Heritage Foundation that that was a bad idea. Now it seems determined, in line with Bush administration policy, to grab the domestic security portfolio too. The Dept. of Homeland Security will go right along with it too, arguing that Bush's power as the Unitary Executive Deciderer In Chief outweighs Posse Commitatus. The dynamic has been clear since the earliest days of the Bush presidency, according to an essay for the Naval postgraduate school's Strategic Insights magazine back in 2003.
America's post-9/11 obsession with securing the "homeland" shifted the domestic political landscape, including American civil-military relations. The American model of civil-military relations has been characterized by a contract according to which the military defends the nation's borders while domestic police keep order at home. "On September 11," in the words of DoD Transformation "czar" Arthur K. Cebrowski, "America's contract with the Department of Defense was torn up and a new contract is being written."
Over at Hullabaloo, DDay writes:
This goes to the other side of how this nation is changing radically - with a series of programs conceived largely by executive fiat that weakens civil liberties protections and subverts the plain letter of the law. This includes illegal wiretapping of American citizens, indefinite detention of prisoners without charges, and the dehumanizing practice of torture, which is ineffective and deeply dangerous to the lives of our troops.
And "b" at Moon of Alabama notes America's single-minded reliance on the military as the hammer for all nails and wonders, as do many of us, whether Obama and his centrist hawk national security team will really try to rollback such egregious abuses of power, or simply embrace them.
Crossposted from Newshoggers
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Was the South's final word on Reconstruction and Federal Troops on their territory.
That was then, this is now.
The Military Industrial Media Complex Jobs Program and Treasury Heist Stratagem Inc needs a mission.
Didn't we just elect a Muslim Marxist as Presidente?
What with FISA and all the Marxists that must be running around you never can be too concerned.
One Marxist in the White House may not be enough, they may want to take over the entire country.
When the economy tanks for real, look out!
Federal troops in the South as a method of stopping secession from the union is more an example of coitus interruptus than posse comitatus, don't you think? And as I said below, I'm actually more worried about FEMA than FISA. Although, that's like saying I'm more worried about being stabbed than shot to death, just because one method is more messy and cruel than the other.
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was a deal to obtain the acquiescence of the South in return for a brokered Presidential win by Rutherford Hayes who trailed in electoral college votes his Democratic Rival Samuel Tilden.
Hayes withdrew the Federal Troops from the South ending Reconstruction and ending Federal protection for the freed slaves who thereafter suffered greatly for want of that protection.
African Americans had been elected to Congress in Reconstruction but that came to a crashing end in 1878 and Jim Crow took its place.
Political expediency and the price we pay for it.
its a pussey party for comotahtahs
A posse comin' at us!!!!
The funny thing is, we're paying their f-ing salaries!!!
So, why would they be comin' at us???
Aren't they our employees??
I'm cornfused here.....
And don't we pay the wages of our politicians and elected officials?
We also pay for the police force who more often than not are not there to protect us when we need them.
I think people should be less worried about the number of troops on U.S. soil who are charged with maintaining "domestic security" than they are about what they are empowered to do in the name of maintaining domestic security and continuity of "government."
Also, I have to say that it's pretty damned embarrassing to think that the only f-ing Congressman to stand up for civil rights is apparently Wallace Shawn (D)-Oregon 4th District.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
And here's Bruce Fein's take on the "Continuity of Government" (which is the dressing on the "posse comin' at us" salad"):
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com...
Maybe they can dispatch them to WalMarts for next Christmas' Black Friday Blowout-Door Buster specials. Or,hire Blackwater. Blackwater Black Friday.
I'm pretty sure that, after this has been in place for awhile, the conservative line will be that it's SOCIALISM to have government employees responsible for public security, and that private industry can do a better job of it.
It is the only logical conclusion to their ideology. Something the democrats should pound home to the general public on a daily basis.
jesus cant they just send a few mps to roust the vagrants and unemployed why send a possey!
Will this military force, being assembled and trained to respond to domestic emergencies, be as well funded and armed as the Blackwater spooks are? And will they be willing to fight them if ordered to? I guess being outgunned and outtrained by Blackwater shows your priority in the pecking order, lets hope this force is assembled and used only as intended. I can partly understand the need, but 20,000 troops are only good for local emergencies. Look at how 150,000 are able to handle 24 million Iraqi's. Not easy, not even possible
They'll probably combine forces. Just like they did at the RNC in St. Paul. Those of us who protested there already got a glimpse of life in a police state. I hope Obama overturns this bad idea.
I still cannot believe what I witnessed during the peaceful protests of the RNC in St. Paul. Many of these so called security officers were from out of state. There were several instances where the security forces were provoking people. They were practicing their tactics which explains why so many people detained were let go without charge and no questions asked.
More like he'd BETTER overturn and address publicly this fascist injection of cancer into the public bloodstream. Amazing these reactions are so Calm! This is what happens before a coup. After all we've been through are we in a slow-motion stupor?
Like Iraq? Or Afghanistan? Can't remember when our Armed forces were "used as intended", don't expect them to be anytime soon. Also, don't forget about Infraguard... http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308 and Blackwater. Combined that's a pretty formidable force.
150,000 troops to handle 24 million Iraqi's is not comparable... first of all Iraqi's know war and conflict and how to weather it, American's are fat and watch dancing with the stars to fill their time and they will crumble or submit to have their dancing back. Plus, the propaganda system here is too good, many will simply turn on their neighbor at the nudging of the state.
The Dems will allow this to happen... unfortunately Kucinich or even Nader would have at least stood up to this kind of crap... not so for President Hillary.
I believe the intent is more of a Federalized force of National Guardsman, to be available in the event of a catastrophe. Don't you think this force would have been helpful during Katrina, when over half of the New Orleans police force was nowhere to be found and half the LA. National Guard was tied down in Iraq or Afghanistan?
I partly share your cynicism, but alarm bells are not yet ringing over this, as I knew it was inevitable anyway after 9/11. 20,000 active duty troops would make me feel better guarding New Orleans after thye flood (or some other emergency) than Blackwater or any of the other neo-fascist militarists with years of brutality in Iraq and Afghanistan where NONE of them are legally accountable for their use of force.
Blackwater Troops WERE dispatched to New Orleans after Katrina,and Kathleen Blanco,the gov,enacted Posse Comitatus.I don't like the idea of our own troops possibly warring against us.
...about this? Or doesn't he think it's even worth mentioning?
Stand over there, do as your told, move along
Stand over there, do as your told, move along
and get your hand out of your pocket pervert,
...used to be ready to deploy in any domestic crisis or natural disaster. Now, however, they're all strung out doing the job of the military, without the pay OR the after-care... and besides, they would have a harder time shooting their friends and neighbors.
I am suspicious.
Another one of George's signing statements gave him the power to send one states national guard troops to a totally different state. For instance he might send Florida national guard troops to Idaho to quell rebellion. The thinking being that if push came to shove guards from Florida would have much less stress about abusing or firing on people that are not their friends and neighbors.
Almost as disturbing as the fact that we have a commissioned military force (Blackwater) solely on the side of the neocons. At least one of them, Jeb Bush, is calling for a shadow government. With a moderate dem in the White House, level heads (hopefully) can at least control the military.
How are we supposed to control a private army solely in the pocket of the GOP? Especially when they start coming hope in large numbers.
revoke their Carte Blanche, and indict on war crimes and profiteering
Well,we've had a shadow banking system, That worked out great,right?Don't you think the TIMING is convenient for Jeb to be talking like that NOW that the've got these posse in place? Type in Bush and BCCI in your google if ya wanna see shadow government. Try Safari Club,too.And no,its not a nightclub or hunting lodge.
HARPER'S (7/29/07): Prescott Bush was "key liaison" w/Nazis in 1934 "Plot Against America"
Posted by leveymg in General Discussion
Thu May 15th 2008, 08:14 PM
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc...
TITLE 1934: The Plot Against America
DEPARTMENT No Comment
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED July 28, 2007
.
In November 1934, federal investigators uncovered an amazing plot involving some two dozen senior businessmen, a good many of them Wall Street financiers, to topple the government of the United States and install a fascist dictatorship. Roth’s novel is developed from several strands of this factual account; he assumed the plot is actually carried out, whereas in fact an alert FDR shut it down but stopped short of retaliatory measures against the plotters. A key element of the plot involved a retired prominent general who was to have raised a private army of 500,000 men from unemployed veterans and who blew the whistle when he learned more of what the plot entailed. The plot was heavily funded and well developed and had strong links with fascist forces abroad. A story in the New York Times and several other newspapers reported on it, and a special Congressional committee was created to conduct an investigation. The records of this committee were scrubbed and sealed away in the National Archives, where they have only recently been made available.
should be tried as traitors and executed. George H.W. Bush was in charge of the C.I.A. when they began importing cocaine into the United States in large numbers. We all know of Dubya's crimes. Not that many know of Jeb's crimes. Subverting justice and tampering with an election are two of his biggest. Grandpa Preston was as slimy as they come. Not a single one of them cares a whit for the country. Everything they do they do for themselves.
The federal government has just about declared war on our way of life, our Constitution and our freedoms. The fact they will have troops deployed here is alarming. It seems we are being set up for a confrontation with the federals. It looks like they want the American citizenry to push back so they will be justified to close this country down for good.
Do you honestly believe Obama would be where he is otherwise? This article is just to get us ready and used to the idea. Soon we'll be seeing them on the streets. Let's not forget Obama also wants 500,000 civilian "law enforcement" corps, ie spies to help out. He's ok with telecoms voliating FISA and ok with giving our wealth away to the UN.
You wanted change. This is the America we've become now. Get used to it or get ready to defend your Constitution.
Stand up!
I personally think it's because they know that food supply and distribution are likely to become one of the major issues in the near future, thanks to the tanking of our economy. Oil supply and distribution being the other. Want to protest? Get shot. Or go to an internment camp.
I know, I sound like a complete loon. But the more I hear of things like this, the more it makes sense.
Occasionally, I pull my tin foil hat out of storage. This has been in the pipeline for a long time. What about the so called detention centers that have popped up around the country?
That detention center list has been around for at least five years. Much of it is outright lies, such as the "former Japanese internment camp on the Gila Indian reservation" which is nothing but foundation and a few old boards. At least half of them were systematically debunked by people who knew the places listed, including us.
It's all about fear-mongering. Fear is like food for the dark side. Another word for that is "loosh."
Well, look up FEMA camps on youtube... I think a well-educated, thoughtful person can decipher the bullshit from the real shit... and the real shit is scary as hell.
People think that bush was a blunderer and not very smart, but if you've read things from people have personal accounts, he's brilliantly evil... the fumbling cowboy shtick is a ruse.
There are certain interests, like his family, that were never for the preservation of the u.s., in fact quite the opposite... as senior liked to state in his speeches... New World Order... Clinton used it in a speech of his also, said he was fond of the phrase.
Many groups state it quite openly that sovereignty must become a thing of the past.
When the government uses "other," be very wary.
http://www.ronnierayjenkins.com/topics/deathi...
The first part of this force they are setting up is built around a combat brigade stationed at Ft Stewart, GA.
Now, people will tell you that any military unit, such as a combat brigade, is useful for general disaster relief work, because such military units are self-supporting, able to bring their own logistics with them, and thus able to go into areas where the normal infrastructure has been taken down by some natural, or yes, man-made, disaster. That's true enough, but if you want to bring logistic support to civilians trapped in some disaster area, there are military units, also self-supporting, that are designed to provide such support not just for themselves, but to other units. So, yes, if you want to get medical support, food and water to disaster-stricken civilians, a combat brigade would have some ability to do that. But service support units would be much better for this role, because they could serve far more disaster victims since logistic support is all they do. They don't also have a lot of combat troops on their rosters, folks who are good at pulling triggers, but whose role isn't to provide logistic support, who, in fact need to use up logistic support in competition with the disaster victims.
You would center your disaster response unit around a combat brigade, rather than a field hospital, or water resupply unit, or other logistic unit, if and only if the main role you see for that unit involves pulling triggers.
No, this doesn't prove that the one and only thing they could possibly have in mind for this unit is the imposition of military rule, or military intervention in domestic politics. Such a role would be made somewhat more available by setting up such a unit, but having such a unit designated for this role is hardly the biggest hurdle you would have to jump to get a military unit to intervene in domestic politics. The real concern here is that the lesson from Katrina that folks making these disaster relief plans learned is that we didn't shoot, or at least intimidate, enough of the victims. It isn't a scandal that we didn't get a field hospital, or some field kitchens, into NO after Katrina. No, the problem was that we didn't get overwhelming force in there to shoot those people looting stores for food that was going to rot anyway.
Hey, at least Heckuva Job Brownie didn't have people shot on his watch. Maybe we were hasty letting him go...
This is but one more step in a process that began with the USA PATRIOT Act and gathered steam with the pithily named John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (JWNDAA). From my post of November 2006:
Section 1076 of the Warner Defense Authorization Act states:
In short, it allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in the United States, commandeering state-based National Guard units WITHOUT the consent of governors or local authorities. It is an unprecedented level of power in the hands of the executive branch, and it threateningly echoes the MCA by allowing the President alone to determine the circumstances under which he exercises it.
The next step took a while to occur, but lo and behold, in October of this year, combat troops were cleared to be stationed on American soil. From my post in October:
Even in isolation - if this were the only effort by the government to diminish civil liberties - this is a development that should be of concern to every American who cherishes the Constitution and loathes the creeping police state transformation of the United States since September 11, 2001. Unfortunately, the deployment of active duty troops to home soil for use in quelling civil unrest didn't happen in isolation.
Concurrently, Attorney General Michael Mukasey finalized new guidelines for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that grant the agency broad new powers to investigate groups and individuals with broad discretion and little or no supporting evidence. While the new framework is touted as a flexible tool that will enable the aggressive pursuit of terrorists, the simple fact is that the FBI was caught last year violating the already-lax civil liberties protections of the USA PATRIOT Act more than 1,000 times. Given the abusive, pre-emptive arrests of both journalists and peaceful demonstrators in Minnesota during the Republican National Convention (RNC), it is clear that the current culture of law enforcement remains focused on gaining new power at the expense of the citizenry.
This is bad stuff. While it is happening slowly and incrementally, it IS happening, and it is happening inexorably.
PBI
Sensen No Sen
...you have absolutely NO REASON to believe me, but I have a business acquaintance who is in the position to know certain things and he has quietly told me that a lot of this stuff has to do with Chavez and Venezuela, of all places. Look at what has been happening with the Russians sending nuclear bombers to Venezuela. The fear is that they will get "The Bomb" or fissionable material, sell it to one of our enemies who "Hate our freedom" and help them smuggle it into the country and set it off. Scary stuff when this guy talks...of course I only hope he is wrong.
What's wrong with you people? All they have to do is convince you to be afraid of something. They have been doing it for years and you keep listening to them.
Courage is so expensive we apparently can no longer afford it. The troops are battle-hardened, clip-emptying, long-term signed-up killing machines. There will be many dead americans if any event is a cause for mobilization. The boosh regime actually had plans for urban deployment, specifically selecting a brigade that spent time in Baghdad.
This is not news as a story. It's good to see more attention being paid.
Make it big and fanciful. Chavez is GONNA blow up the u.s. and Putin is GONNA allie with China whose GONNA poison the entire pop with melamine toilet paper that goes though the skin and Palestine is GONNA carry dirty bombs into nyc subways and murder thousands of u.s. citizens on the way to work at rush hour and some ARAB is GONNA take a shit and divide it up into thousands of Ragu Spaghetti Sauce jars and circulate them among hundreds of grocery store shelves.....
so we need troops on every street in the u.s.of a. and thousands of rested bushytailed Blackwater troops fresh on a new assignment without the tedium of international travel ready to defend every man woman and child from all these GONNA's.
Who needs hallucinogens?
No. We have no reason to believe your business acquaintance. Does he spam homebased business shucks if we send him a check to his post office box? Or, is he the soldier who found a stash of Sadam's money in a cave and wants money to ship suitcases full of cash but he lives in a shack in africa and routes his calls through england?
it wouldn't be six months before the world will test President Obama. Maybe it was Venezuela and Russia that he was alluding to? It could very easily turn into another Bay of Pigs. I think the Cuban Communist Regime is going to fall and Chavez is getting ready to take it's place. He is already setting himself up as a dictator. Chavez wants it put into his country's constitution that he can run for President indefinitely. Look at Russia. Putin and his appointed puppet president are taking their country back to it's cold-war communist roots. If that is the situation, I thank God that it's Barak Obama sitting in the big chair and not McCain.
Our country is the one that's broken to smithereens, that's the country that needs tending to. This one. Right here.
Haven't you heard demonizing came and went with the boosh regime.
What Putin does is his own damn business and insulating himself along with Chavez against the u.s. is just plain common sense considering the dangerous freakazoids (we trust) are now departing the WH. If you're completely against ordinary cause and effect and real people with understandable reactions to real provocations then hold fast to the past, expect diplomacy not to work and trust other countries with other leaders have no right to exist (yes, including russia and venezuela) and let the people of those countries run their own show and let's try, for once, to stay the fuck out of their business.
If you go to this web site, http://www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.
How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes a second.
I'll pass on that AMAZING FREE OFFER.
Instead I'll say no thanks...
I want my tax money to go to schools, roads, and jobs right here in America, not to killing strangers for no foreseeable gain. Parking your morality at the door, and picking up a rifle for a pittance doesn't earn my thanks.
I'll say thanks in person, when I start seeing them returned to functional society.
BTW If I was stuck in a war-zone, I think getting a prefab thank you card from xerox would probably piss me off. Then later I'd get to see a commercial with emotionally charged string section music, talking about how appreciative and proud xerox is to help people say thanks.
Awesome. I don't think I like the toner of your post.
What about the National Guard? What happened to them? I thought they were already the ones charged with "protecting homeland," blah blah blah. Course now they are all over in Iraq. hmm...
Isn't the National Guard broken and shredded - just like the regular military? Besides NOT being here I mean? No men, no equipment, etc.? All their equipment went to Iraq too.
*
boosh took the golden opportunity to take the National Guard away from state governors and place them under federal control at the time of Katrina and hardly anyone noticed. It started with New Orleans and the state of Florida.
Keith Olbermann did one story on it at the time. Lot of fucking good it did.
troubles me that there are so many people who think an active duty unit is not prepared to help in a national emergency.
I respect that there has to be a clear, easily-defined reason for activating this power. It isn't to be taken lightly. But come on--do you really think active duty troops are going to fire on American citizens? Do you really think this is about something nefarious rather than common sense?
We sure don't hesitate to call out the troops to go fight fires out west. Is that wise, given what we're talking about here? They might take up shovels and subvert the local fire department.
I don't buy that for a minute. 20,000 US troops couldn't secure and hold the city of Cleveland, Ohio, notwithstanding being fully armed. Put four soldiers on every corner and you'd run out of soldiers long before you'd run out of corners.
Of course, no one wants a President Bush to have any kind of control over the military in civilian functions. But I damned sure want trained professional soldiers out there, providing emergency triage, chemical decontamination, public affairs support for devastated areas, logistics support, transportation, bridge and road repair, and all of the very, very necessary and common sense things that an active duty unit can provide. Let's not forget the helicopters and the presence of troops to mitigate civil unrest--think of the first order General Honore gave when he arrived in New Orleans: he told the troops to backsling their damned weapons and get to work.
In each brigade, there actually are troops who can serve as medics, engineers, and who have the necessary training to decontaminate a chemical spill. There is a public affairs section, a specialized company that can set up communications to the outside world, and we're talking men and women here. You can certainly go to the division level and find transportation and engineer units that would be larger and more well equipped, but the way they are building the active duty brigades is to be more self-sufficient and more capable. In conjunction with a fire department, a police department, and other civilian agencies, I think it would be a great fit--especially if EVERYONE had a radio that could talk to one another.
The idea that men in kevlar helmets with guns walking around is one thing; it's entirely a different scenario when a 110 pound female medic is treating people in a triage center or when someone with decontamination gear is helping to save you or move you away from a chemical spill.
I just don't see it. There's plenty of other stuff to get spun up about. One thing I would not want to see is the MI company set up their SIGINT collection equipment and start writing reports I guess.
You're describing proper use of domestic security.
We're describing improper use of domestic security unleashed for the wrong reasons, ie., created emergencies.
A bit outside of the comfort of foursquare logical tidiness. Dangerous bullshit, consider that.
Yes , what about FEMA and Blackwater?
What about the still presiding administration and it's historic panel?
Do these entities simply disappear now?
Doubtful.
To rest assured is foolish.
Not only because these groups are privatised and funded,
but people are angry and going to get angrier.
It seems realistic while not optimal , that the new administration
will come upon much adversity from all directions and par for the course
will go along with some some organisations as a matter of appeasement .
I don't like to entertain such possibilities ,but it is realistic.
On the flipside ,let's hope we see the immediate end to such things.
This is all in anticipation of the economic riots that are going to become more frequent as the economy continues to collapse. This is the state's way of controlling the "bewildered herd" during desperate times.
Oh, come on, Alice X.............are you a Republican troll? Marxist
Muslim President(e) (sic.) indeed! Get off this website and go hang with the Freepers if you're going to say things like that. Obama is a Christian, a Democrat, and a patriot. And I daresay he'll be a 100 times better president than the Current Occupant.......who will go down in history as one of the country's greatest criminals who raped and pillaged the American people and their country for the profit of himself and his buddies.
The man is a constitutional scholar. He is going to take an oath to uphold and defend the constitution.
What's he gonna do?
Keep a very close eye on this one folks.
...and has already violated it by voting to re-authorise the patriot act. and by voting for the homegrown terror act.
I want my habeus corpus back.
Who isn't expecting some kind of interference before the Inauguration.
What is boosh up to in the next 50 days this doesn't feel very good.
Looting the treasury is just one phase of this and it is hard to believe they will leave Obama in peace to govern.
One of the most important things Obama can do is do away with ALL language spawned from the last administration such as "Homeland" Security and return it to it's traditional moniker, National Security.
He can't allow remnants of Turdblossoms to sit in backrooms of the american psyche. He also must prosecute all war crimes and crimes against the constitution and bill of rights.
If Obama DOESN'T bring these affronts right in front of the public and the entire world and make it THE dialogue, we are in danger of being swallowed once again in every future election. And that will happen.
At the moment we have a 'possible' reprieve and an apportunity to insist all these crimes are brought into the light of day. If Obama glosses it over, buries boosh crimes in the catbox and tries to make friends without prosecutions we are greatly endangered by such non-action.
We must, should absolutely apply pressure to make this happen.
For some reason, the phrase "Crossing the Rubicon" comes to mind...
Mission creep is that one guy who tries to act like he's in charge, even though he doesn't outrank anyone, is dumb as a box of rocks, and requires everyone to continually save his sorry ass.
What's A Posse Comitatus?
Slurred speech.
It supposed to be A Posse Comingatus.
1. Let's not over react on this. An MWD attack on the US is, in fact, a military act and would require, in some cases, a military response. This differs from a pure terrorist attack (like 9/11). US Military personnel are better trained to operate in this environment than are local emergency response personnel. US Army personnel regulalry train to operate in nuclear, chemical and biologically trained environments.
2. Do you want a group that can rapidly move into an area, provide security and assistance to the local polulace and the local civil government? That would be DoD. As has been pointed out, a brigade combat team is organized well to switch missions and assist in these matters. It has a headquarters element whcih has integral communications equipment, to include satellite capabilities. It has 3 separate 350 to 600 man organizations that can provide security, labor force, etc. It also has an integral support battalion which has supply, medical and maintenance capability. The structure of this type of unit is designed to accept command of support untis to expand its capabilities. So after a chemical attack on, lets say, north east Deleware (blowing up a chemical plant is easier than dropping a chemical bomb) this unit could provide a command element for a hospital, water purification units to cleanse contaminated water, laundry units which can augment civilian hospitals requirements to decontaminate bedding, etc and chemical defense untis whcih can assist in decontamination efforts. The BCT is about 3,500 total folks, all young, fit and motivated to help. You average soldier will bend over backwards to help civilians...how do you think they will they react helping their fellow citizens?
3. The US Army (as opposed to the National Guard) has stepped in during recent history to assist during natural disasters and provided their support while responding to civilian authority. During post Katrina activities all military forces responded to the governors of Mississippi or Louisianna or the civilian head of FEMA. After Hurricane Andrew in Florida, US Air FOrce, Coast Guard and Navy personnel and organizations operated conducting disaster relief. In 1989 large elements of the 24th Infantry Division at FT Stewart, GA deployed in and around Charleston, SC, to assist after Hurricane Hugo. My infantry battalion (one of those 600 man organizations...but back then it had 825) operated a supply operations on a 24/7 basis handling 150 semitrailers fo relief suppies per day sent in from WalMart, Sears, Lowes, etc. Our mess facilities fed local displaced personnel in addition to the troops. But in every instance the military forces DID NOT override or go outside of civilian control and authority. The local and state police forces maintained law enforcement authority. they may have been augmented by military police units, both active and reserve, but those MPs did not have arrest authority. National Guard units under state control could detain but would have to turn over to civil law enforcement for arrest. Active forces could provide a support role, not a direct law enforcement role.
4. Finally the Army is not looking for this mission...the Army is being given this mission. If Congress doesn't want the Army to do this then they better authorize, appropriate, train, man and equip an organization under DHS, DOE, or someone to do it.
5. All of that said, if the authority is granted by Congress then it is not Executive over reach. So while I don't think having the Army assist in this case would be a bad idea, I believe Congress needs to specifically authorize this. That way there is no violation of the law. If there is no authorization then this should not occur.
A simple suggestions, why the "f" not put the troops on the F'n Border? DUH!!!!!!!
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