One Step Closer to a Police State

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One Step Closer to a Police State

Fri, 19 May 2006 12:57:01 -0700

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051906A.shtml

 

One Step Closer to a Police State

By Joshua Holland

AlterNet

 

Thursday 18 May 2006

 

Placing National Guard troops on the border could be a violation

of the Posse Comitatus Act. And that's just fine with the Bush

administration.

 

President Bush's plan to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the

Mexican border, widely seen as a political gambit, is coming under

fire from both left and right.

 

It's likely that the move is a violation of the Posse Comitatus

Act, a law established after the Civil War that prohibits the use of

U.S. troops for domestic law enforcement. Passed in 1878 to prohibit

federal troops from running elections in the former confederate

states, it is considered a bulwark against the development of a police

state.

 

A central issue of Bush's plan is that the troops would be under

federal authority. One of the exceptions built into the Posse

Comitatus Act is that troops may be deployed to support law

enforcement agencies, but with the exception of insurrections and

riots, nuclear attack or interdiction of drug smuggling (when working

directly with law enforcement agencies), they must be under the

authority of a state governor.

 

The ACLU sent a letter to the administration warning that turning

immigration " into another military operation is not the answer, "

adding that it " violates the spirit of the Posse Comitatus Act. " The

libertarian Cato Institute agreed, writing that " the same training

that makes U.S. soldiers outstanding warriors makes them extremely

dangerous as cops. " Larry Korb, an assistant secretary of defense

under Ronald Reagan, said that the military " is trained to vaporize,

not Mirandize. "

 

In 1997, a Marine corporal deployed in the border area shot and

killed Esequiel Hernandez, an 18-year-old goat herder. The incident

led to a congressional review that criticized the Justice Department's

handling of the case and ended the Marines' involvement in policing

the border.

 

But while some conservatives are joining civil liberties groups in

expressing concern over the deployment, the Republican leadership is

reportedly pursuing another course: rolling back the protections of

Posse Comitatus once and for all.

 

Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the CIA who maintains close

connections in the national security community, reports that,

according to " a credible source on the Hill, " the Senate " is moving to

amend [or] repeal the Posse Comitatus Act, ostensibly to allow greater

options for National Guard troops on the border. The move would remove

National Guardsmen " from governors' authority " and place them " under

the president. "

 

The move comes in the context of an administration that has

consistently expressed disdain for Posse Comitatus, and the constraint

it puts on the use of troops in domestic actions. As James Bovard

reported for AlterNet in 2004:

 

From its support of the Total Information Awareness surveillance

vacuum cleaner, to its use of Pentagon spy planes during the

Washington-area sniper shootings in late 2002, to its attempt to

empower military officials to seize Americans' financial and other

private information without a warrant, the Bush administration gives

grave cause for concern about the growing role of the armed forces in

our daily life.

 

As far back as 2002, the president issued a national security plan

calling for a " review " of Posse Comitatus. Gen. Ralph Eberhart, who

headed the Northern Command said that he " welcomed " changes in the law

if necessary. " My view has been that Posse Comitatus will constantly

be under review as we mature this command, " he told the New York Times.

 

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the calls for using troops in

federal disaster relief grew. In September of last year, then-Pentagon

spokesman Lawrence Di Rita called the Posse Comitatus Act " very

archaic, " and said that it hampered disaster response. Bush echoed

that sentiment two weeks later, saying he wanted " a robust discussion

about the best way for the federal government, in certain extreme

circumstances, to be able to rally assets for the good of the people. "

A week later, Bush called for the possible use of federal troops to

respond to a bird flu outbreak, saying " I think the president ought to

have all options on the table. "

 

But as William Arkin, military analyst for the Washington Post

noted, there's no reason in the world to modify or repeal Posse

Comitatus to respond to disasters:

 

Nothing in law prevents the president from employing the military

in a Katrina-like emergency if state and local government really

breaks down. In fact, the 130-year-old Posse Comitatus Act more

symbolizes the military's subordination to civil authority than it

actually restricts what the military can do.

 

Arkin warned that " Donald Rumsfeld and his ever-growing industry

of military complexes ... seem to be intentionally badmouthing Posse

Comitatus ... in order to earn themselves greater operational

flexibility in the United States. "

 

He also reported on a plan developed under Rumsfeld that predicted

" a scenario in which the Defense Department would have to take 'the

lead' from ... civil agencies, and the states, that is, to act without

civil authority. " He added: " I think we call that martial law. "

 

And the military is not leaving domestic surveillance up to the

NSA. Last month, Robert Dreyfus, writing in Rolling Stone detailed how

Bush, " operating in secret " soon after Sept. 11, established the

Counterintelligence Field Activity agency (CIFA), and " in a move that

received little public attention, " charged it " with consolidating all

Pentagon intelligence. "

 

Last year, a commission appointed by Bush urged that CIFA be

empowered to collect and analyze intelligence " both inside and outside

the United States. " Dreyfus says that the Pentagon " is systematically

gathering and analyzing intelligence on American citizens at home " and

cites several examples of the new agency spying on antiwar protesters.

 

After it was revealed that a new intelligence unit in the

California National Guard was spying on the Raging Grannies, a group

that organized a Mother's Day protest against the war, an outraged

California state senator, Joe Dunn, called for the Guard's

intelligence unit to be dismantled, saying: " Our fear is that this was

part of a federally sponsored effort to set up domestic surveillance

programs in a way that would circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act. "

 

The danger is that a president who even conservatives concede has

consolidated more power in the White House than any administration

since Lincoln's, and who has little faith in the rest of the

government will lean more heavily on the military than he already

does. Add to that this administration's well-known contempt for

dissent, and there's a real potential for slipping into a full-blown

police state.

 

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