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Thomas Hardy reports

***

Also, yo, we are one homegrown nuke away from a military dictatorship

I am sharing my favorite excerpts:

The war plans represent a historic shift for the Pentagon, which has been reluctant to become involved in domestic operations and is legally constrained from engaging in law enforcement. Indeed, defense officials continue to stress that they intend for the troops to play largely a supporting role in homeland emergencies, bolstering police, firefighters and other civilian response groups.

But the new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks that could quickly overwhelm civilian resources.

Nonetheless, when it comes to ground forces possibly taking a lead role in homeland operations, senior Northcom officers remain reluctant to discuss specifics. Keating said such situations, if they arise, probably would be temporary, with lead responsibility passing back to civilian authorities.

Military exercises code-named Vital Archer, which involve troops in lead roles, are shrouded in secrecy.

Civil liberties groups have warned that the military's expanded involvement in homeland defense could bump up against the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which restricts the use of troops in domestic law enforcement. But Pentagon authorities have told Congress they see no need to change the law.

According to military lawyers here, the dispatch of ground troops would most likely be justified on the basis of the president's authority under Article 2 of the Constitution to serve as commander in chief and protect the nation. The Posse Comitatus Act exempts actions authorized by the Constitution.

One potentially tricky area, the admiral said, involves National Guard officers who are put in command of task forces that include active-duty as well as Guard units -- an approach first used last year at the Group of Eight summit in Georgia. Guard troops, acting under state control, are exempt from Posse Comitatus prohibitions.

"It could be a challenge for the commander who's a Guardsman, if we end up in a fairly complex, dynamic scenario," Keating said. He cited a potential situation in which Guard units might begin rounding up people while regular forces could not.

***

Also RIP Peter Jennings. One of the last dinosaurs.

Date: 2005-08-08 11:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] contrasoma.livejournal.com
Oh God. I don't even want to think of the implications. I haven't run across the phrase "Posse Comitatus" since I was doing all my digging on white supremacist movements back in '94.

Run north, and learn how to shoot straight.

Date: 2005-08-08 05:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] twistedcat.livejournal.com
according to a source of mine who would prefer to remain unnamed, it is recommended to look up operation alpha bravo from the early part of the 20th century, then look into the fact that lawrence livermore labs has a laserish device that can simulate a nuclear blast without the fallout, and therre was something else that escapes me at present. anywho, i took all this to be confirmation that we are actively training troops to go into an area after a nuclear blast on our own soil. my source, of course, cannot confirm or deny this without being in violation of a number of federal laws, but you get the picture...

Date: 2005-08-08 07:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pirat-ponton.livejournal.com
The Posse Comitatus Act exempts actions authorized by the Constitution.
well, if they want to get all lawyery about it, then they can't do it as part of "the war on terror", since the invasion and occupation of iraq is unauthorized (authorization required administration's proof within 48 hours that iraq was responsible for sept. 11)

subtlety be damned

Date: 2005-08-09 05:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mjmj.livejournal.com
something to look forward to soon from your radio:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8852125/site/newsweek/

But the most searing moment, on a song called "Sweet Neo Con," isn't personal but political. "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you're full of shit." "It is direct," Jagger says with a laugh. "Keith said [he breaks into a dead-on Keith imitation], 'It's not really metaphorical.'

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