NYT: In Terror Fight, Domestic Roles for U.S. Troops (*'s commandos)

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - Somewhere in the shadows of the White House and the Capitol this week, a small group of super-secret commandos stood ready with state-of-the-art weaponry to swing into action to protect the presidency in ways that have never been fully revealed before.

As part of the extraordinary army of 13,000 troops, police officers and federal agents marshaled to secure the inauguration, these elite forces were deployed under a 1997 authorization that was updated and enhanced after the Sept. 11 attacks, but nonetheless departs from how the military has historically been used on American soil.

These commandos, operating under a secret counterterrorism program code-named Power Geyser, were mentioned publicly for the first time this week on a Web site for a new book, "Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operation in the 9/11 World," (Steerforth Press), by William M. Arkin, a former Army intelligence analyst.

The precise number of these Special Operations forces in Washington this week is highly classified, but military officials say the numbers are very small, probably not exceeding a few dozen. The special-missions units belong to the Joint Special Operations Command, a secretive command based at Fort Bragg, N.C., whose elements include the Army unit Delta Force. In the past, the command has also provided support to domestic law enforcement agencies during high-risk events like the Olympics and political party conventions, according to the Web site of GlobalSecurity.org, a research organization in Alexandria, Va.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/nationalspecial3/23code.html?ei=5065&en=da865789fda33413&ex=1107061200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&position=

[Trajan]

1. The New Praetorian Guards ....

Whispers in the halls of power will take on a whole new/old meaning .....

[LynnTheDem]

2. bush's REPUBLICAN GUARD.

Maybe he can also hire Saddam's former Republican Guard troops to add to his own, since most troops are currently & for the forseeable future Iraqmired.

[htuttle]

3. Do they get to wear special armbands?

[dqueue]

8. The snipers...

on the rooftops during the inauguration parade worse bright, fluorescent green armbands... I imagine for visibility to other "soldiers" atop adjacent buildings. I couldn't determine if they had color "teams" perhaps...

[Wilms]

4. Sometimes I think the biggest threat to * & C is their handlers.

Like if they screw up, get a bit unruly, or if they become a squeal threat (at the treason trials), POP.

[daleo]

5. Remember what happened to the original "Little Boots"

A Praetorian Guard doesn't always work out to the Emperor's advantage.

[Kolesar]

9. actually no

Is that a reference to Julius Caesar? I missed that history lesson.

[htuttle]

13. Not Julius. Gaius Caligula

The Praetorian Guard used to call him 'Little Boots', since when he was a child, he went with his father (the Emperor) on campaign and was dressed up in miniature armor.

[Kolesar]

19. sounds like a good idea, then

I mean...thanks for the history lesson.

[daleo]

15. And he was killed by the Praetorian Guard.

His behavior became even too crazy for them.

[oneighty]

6. They are only people

They bleed and they die just like regular people do.

They are pumped up with illusions of greatness and immortality. Their primary purpose is to spread fear.

180

[teryang]

7. Don't think these "commandos" can do much vis a vis WMDs

...the two missions are incompatible. My impression is that supersecret defense contractors and public health agencies are the primary defense with respect to WMD attacks of the chemical or biological kind. As to nuclear attack, the defense plan is run, or bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

This whole setup bespeaks of a government run by paranoids rather than a particularly effective group. I notice that airforce has the operational control of the United States with Northern Command. This is their reward for supporting the 911 operation.

<Since Sept. 11, however, military and law enforcement agencies have worked much more closely not only to help detect and defeat any possible attack, including from unconventional weapons, but also to assure the continuity of the federal government in case of cataclysmic disaster.

The commandos here this week were the same type of Special Operations forces who are hunting top insurgents in Iraq and Osama bin Laden in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But under the top-secret military plan, they are also conducting counterterrorism missions in support of civilian agencies in the United States.

"They bring unique military and technical capabilities that often are centered around potential W.M.D. events," said a senior military official who has been briefed on the units' operations. <snip>

Now I really feel safe.

[bemildred]

10. The Bushites should read up a bit on the Praetorian Guard.

They were known to "remove" Emperors they didn't like and
subsititute ones of their own choosing.

[librechik]

11. 1997 order "updated and enhanced for post 9/11"

get ready for the SS--but why use them domestically? Unless they're planning something SOOOO outrageous that they think riots will start? And the first assignment was the inauguration?

Maybe they thought there would be a bigger fuss over OHio than there was.

This is just about as legal as Guantanamo torture. We'd better get hip to what has happened quick, because once this stuff gets going it's really hard to stop. We need more help from "real" conservatives than we're getting.

[rodeodance]

12. "extra legal" * and Rummy--are involved-do you recall Gitmo and the

"extra legal" debackle?--they claimed they they were outside the law.
This seems pretty familiar!! Lots of provisions in the Defense bill that are being interpreted and put into play that no one knows anything about!!!


......Mr. Arkin provided The New York Times with briefing slides prepared by the Northern Command, detailing the plan and outlining the military's preparations for the inauguration.

Three senior Defense Department and Bush administration officials confirmed the existence of the plan and mission, but disputed Mr. Arkin's characterization of the mission as "extra-legal."

One of the officials said the units operated in the United States under "special authority" from either the president or the secretary of defense.

Civilian and uniformed military lawyers said provisions in several federal statutes, including the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Department Authorization Act, Public Law 106-65, permits the secretary of defense to authorize military forces to support civilian agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the event of a national emergency, especially any involving nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. ......

[Rose Siding]

14. This cinches it; the inauguration was a "national emergency"

Civilian and uniformed military lawyers said provisions in several federal statutes, including the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Department Authorization Act, Public Law 106-65, permits the secretary of defense to authorize military forces to support civilian agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the event of a national emergency, especially any involving nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

[IndianaGreen]

16. The military is used to defend the nation against its enemies,so if...

The military is used to defend the nation against its enemies,so if you use the military as a police force, then the people become the enemy.

[struggle4progress]

17. The Posse Comitatus Act: A principle in need of renewal

Cite As 75 Wash. U. L.Q. 953

In response to the military presence in the Southern States during the Reconstruction Era, Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act<1> ("PCA" or the "Act") to prohibit the use of the Army in civilian law enforcement. The Act embodies the traditional American principle of separating civilian and military authority and currently forbids the use of the Army and Air Force to enforce civilian laws.<2> In the last fifteen years, Congress has deliberately eroded this principle by involving the military in drug interdiction at our borders.<3> This erosion will continue unless Congress renews the PCA's principle to preserve the necessary and traditional separation of civilian and military authority.

The need for reaffirmation of the PCA's principle is increasing because in recent years, Congress and the public have seen the military as a panacea for domestic problems.<4> Within one week of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City,<5> President Clinton proposed an exception to the PCA to allow the military to aid civilian authorities in investigations involving "weapons of mass destruction."<6> In addition to this proposal Congress also considered legislation to directly involve federal troops in enforcing customs and immigration laws at the border.<7> In the 1996 presidential campaign, candidate Bob Dole pledged to increase the role of the military in the drug war, and candidate Lamar Alexander even proposed replacing the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol with a new branch of the armed forces.<8>

The growing haste and ease with which the military is considered a panacea for domestic problems will quickly undermine the PCA if it remains unchecked. Minor exceptions to the PCA can quickly expand to become major exceptions. For example in 1981, Congress created an exception to the PCA to allow military involvement in drug interdiction at our borders. <9> Then in 1989, Congress designated the Department of Defense as the "single lead agency" in drug interdiction efforts.<10> <snip>

http://law.wustl.edu/WULQ/75-2/752-10.html


1878 Military Law Gets New Attention

Nov 24, 2001 - This bit of relative antiquity defines the role of the US Military in our lives and keeps us from becoming little more than a wealthy banana republic.

Currently, America's military is largely prohibited from acting as a domestic police force. And while the presence of military "advisors" during the siege, brutality and slaughter at WACO Texas set ominous trends in motion, few thought in terms of its implications. But that was before the terrorism of September 11, 2001, now glibly called "911."

"Our way of life has forever changed,'' wrote Sen. John Warner R-Va., in an October 2001 letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "Should this law now be changed to enable our active-duty military to more fully join other domestic assets in this war against terrorism?''

The law, was championed by far-sighted Southern lawmakers in 1878. They had experienced a fifteen year military occupation by the US Army in post-Civil War law enforcement. They understood the heel of a jackboot. <snip>

http://www.dojgov.net/posse_comitatus_act.htm


United States Code as of: 01/06/03
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 67 - MILITARY AND NAVY
Section 1385. Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=18&sec=1385

[LibertyorDeath]

18. Power Geyser ROTFLMFAO

Power Geyser haaaaaaaaa

God Bless America