Matthew Rothschild: What Is NorthCom Up To?

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/13-0

What Is NorthCom Up To?

by Matthew Rothschild


This week and into next, NorthCom and NORAD are conducting a joint exercise called "Vigilant Shield '09."

The focus will be on "homeland defense and civil support," a NorthCom press release states.

From November 12-18, it will be testing a "synchronized response of federal, state, local and international partners in preparation for homeland defense, homeland security, and civil support missions in the United States and abroad."

NorthCom is short for the Pentagon's Northern Command. President Bush created it in October 2002. (The Southern Command, or SouthCom, covers Latin America. Central Command, or CentCom, covers Iraq and Afghanistan. And the new AfriCom covers, well, you get the picture.)

Vigilant Shield '09 "will include scenarios to achieve exercise objectives within the maritime, aerospace, ballistic missile defense, cyber, consequence management, strategic communications, and counter terrorism domains," the press release states.

snip//

NorthCom has been in the news lately, after the Pentagon designated to it a battle-tested fighting unit from the war on Iraq. This appears to be against the law, according to the ACLU, since the army isn't supposed to be patrolling our own country.

On top of that, NorthCom was up to its eyeballs in getting peace groups spied upon.

"The security people at USNORTHCOM . . . had begun noticing some trouble at a few military recruiting events in 2005," Eric Lichtblau recounts in Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice. "Military officials at NORTHCOM asked their counterparts at CIFA {the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity} to ping their powerful new database-do a broader study and find out how many episodes of violence and disruption were actually imperiling their recruiters."

And NorthCom even was in the loop at the Republican Convention in St. Paul.

Is it too much to ask Congress to look into NorthCom?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I would be nervous if there weren't for the folks here on DU saying that there is

nothing to worry about....:eyes:

[TheWraith]

6. We go through this cycle of people panicking over military exercises every year, like clockwork. nt

[wroberts189]

7. This is the first time ever battle hardened troops have been deployed in US

why not a guard unit? Why do we need the ones who's expertise is killing?

[TheWraith]

8. Care to provide a citation?

Other than CommonDreams, which is highly unreliable.

There have been lots of times that combat troops have been assigned to the US. It's not like we park them in Canada whenever we're not fighting a war.

[niyad]

2. k & r for this most important topic

what are they up to indeed.

[Idealism]

3. k & r

hopefully this won't pass by without any in the MSM picking it up

[jimshoes]

4. It's best to keep a watchful eye

on this whole thing. They don't do anything just for the heck of it. Is it tinfoil to think there might be ulterior motives? Not if the last 8 years is any indicator.

[Up2Late]

5. OMG, I so want all of this Bush Crap to just be OVER!

But NOoooo! Bush is going to push all this crap right to the end.:mad: :argh: