Reply #85: Federal troops get limited role in Katrina work

[Hannah Bell]

3 September 2005, 15:47 CDT

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Saturday it will carefully limit the role of 7,200 federal troops heading into chaotic New Orleans and other places hit by Hurricane Katrina to avoid violating a law barring them from domestic law enforcement duties.

"They will not take on a law enforcement role nor have they been directed in any way to do so," said Lt. Gen. Joseph Inge, deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command, which oversees the military relief effort.

For the first time since Katrina devastated New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday, President George W. Bush on Saturday ordered in a large influx of regular military troops -- 5,200 Army active-duty Army soldiers and 2,000 Marines.

The military relief effort until now has been primarily handled by part-time National Guard troops under the command of state governors. Under law, they are permitted to perform law enforcement duties at a governor's command.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, enacted during the post-Civil War reconstruction period, prohibits federal military personnel from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States. But the president can waive the law in an emergency.

Asked whether Bush might waive the law, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "We continue to consider the full range of options."

Inge said the Marines and Army soldiers will concentrate on providing humanitarian assistance to Katrina victims. But asked whether they could perform tasks like crowd control and site protection, Inge said, "That's correct. Probably not too much crowd control because you run the edge of law enforcement there."

http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/229547/federal_troops_get_limited_role_in_katrina_work/


This is after Bush's supposed conversion.

His father sent federal troops to do riot control. Do you think he wasn't aware of the precedent?

Instead New Orleans got Blackwater.