1 post tagged “military”

This is the kind of thing that gets you labeled a "conspiracy nut" if you even mention it.  Still, it's very disturbing to me. via Glenn Greenwald:

Several bloggers today have pointed to this obviously disturbing article from Army Times, which announces that "beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st [Brigade Combat Team] will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North" -- "the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities."

Why is that a big deal, you say?

For more than 100 years -- since the end of the Civil War -- deployment of the U.S. military inside the U.S. has been prohibited under The Posse Comitatus Act (the only exceptions being that the National Guard and Coast Guard are exempted, and use of the military on an emergency ad hoc basis is permitted, such as what happened after Hurricane Katrina).

Greenwald quotes James Bovard, writing in The American Conservative about Section 1076 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 the legislation that made this move possible:

"Martial law" is a euphemism for military dictatorship. When foreign democracies are overthrown and a junta establishes martial law, Americans usually recognize that a fundamental change has occurred. . . . Section 1076 is Enabling Act-type legislation—something that purports to preserve law-and-order while formally empowering the president to rule by decree.

I've not taken seriously suggestions that the Bush administration might do something like "allow" some kind of terrorist attack to happen and use it as an excuse to declare martial law.  I couldn't believe even they would do something so heinous.  This story is very disquieting.