Military to Deploy 20,000 Soldiers For Homeland Security

[L. Coyote]

Source: Washington Post

By Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 1, 2008; A01

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

---

Obama might need them to round up the Bush Junta!

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Back in the day this would have been a total outrage. Now that everybody

has been sufficiently softened up by endless terror alerts & bad news, it's business as usual.

[Zywiec]

2. See you at the barricades

[Doremus]

3. There it is. n/t

[aquart]

4. NO.

Not acceptable on any level to any degree.

[jody]

5. Bush abolished Posse Comitatus so this is threatening. Does Obama approves this step toward

a police state?

Each state has its militia both organized and unorganized but, Federal government took control of the organized militia with the Militia Act of 1903 and Congress has not done its job with the remaining militia forces, i.e. "To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia".

[ohio2007]

7. Obama's SS ?

During a Katrina disaster, Barack can dispatch federal troops while informing the governor help is on the way. There was some sort of protocol red tape during Katrina as I recalled.

Something about the Louisiana 'militia' was already serving overseas and spread pretty thin at home.


but the NWO truthers will be pointing to this as the next obvious step to 2012 october suprise

[jody]

12. LA Governor had the "unorganized militia" that could heve been used but like other states, it was

not organized, equipped, and trained as our Constitution requires Congress to do.

LA law "§3. Militia A. All able-bodied persons between the ages of seventeen and sixty-four residing in this state and who are not exempt by the laws of the United States of America or of this state constitute the militia of Louisiana and are subject to military duty."

[AndyTiedye]

6. Posse Cometatus, We Hardly New Ye

[jody]

10. In 2006 Congress gutted Posse Comitatus and in 2008 reinstated it as below. What will Obama do?

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec...

§ 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.

[AndyTiedye]

14. Did ** Attach a "Signing Statement" to Delete 1385 from the 2008 Bill?

[jody]

15. Interesting question, I'll try and find out. n/t

[jody]

17. The signing statement below does not include section 1074.

President Bush Signs H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 into Law

Today, I have signed into law H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The Act authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, for military construction, and for national security-related energy programs.
Provisions of the Act, including sections 841, 846, 1079, and 1222, purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the President's ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as Commander in Chief. The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 28, 2008.

The public signing statement did not include section 1074 so I guess that’s good news.

Text of H.R. 4986: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008

SEC. 1074. PROTECTION OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

(d) Construction-
(1) NO ADDITIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OR ARREST AUTHORITY- Other than the authority to provide protection and security under this section, nothing in this section may be construed to bestow any additional law enforcement or arrest authority upon the qualified members of the Armed Forces and qualified civilian employees of the Department of Defense.
(2) POSSE COMITATUS- Nothing in this section shall be construed to abridge section 1385 of title 18, United States Code.

[ohio2007]

8. but what about the "Bring all the troops home now" crowd ?

Tyey are part of the plot.
I knew it

[endless october]

9. Unacceptable.

[Hekate]

11. Bring. The. State. National. Guards. Home. Now. nt

[badgervan]

13. Exactly....

... The National Guard and Reserves used to do a good job. This 20,000 trained troops thing sounds real dangerous, and should never be implemented. Remember the stories not too long ago about the huge holding pens/prisons being built out west? Presumably to hold "illegal aliens"? Those prisons could very well hold us dangerous libs, or all Muslims, or anyone powerful idiots want "disappeared". Not good. Watch Obama on this one.

[Dover]

16. Isn't this the role of the National Guard? What is the distinction they are making?..n/t

[jody]

18. That's the role of each state's militia under our Constitution however each state's Guard was

effectively placed under federal command in 1903.

Guard units are the "organized militia" and all other males between 17 and 45 with exceptions are in the "unorganized militia".

Except for a handful of troops, the "unorganized militia" is not organized, equipped, or trained "to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions" as required by Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of our Constitution.

[ksimons]

19. they were good for morale in airports

maybe they'll put them on the planes too

[Libertas1776]

20. ...

A government must make certain necessary precautions and steps to secure its nation especially in a democratic republic like ourselves (or whats left of it)
However, citizens and the govt of such a "free" place must realize that there will always be people that wish them harm because of their freedoms and liberties. We take a risk enjoying these freedoms but its the most worth wile risk in the world. Would you rather live in a police state, under 24 hour surveillance, because I will promise you will be secure from outside enemies, but from your government, thats another story.

The great Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said that "anyone who would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety, deserves neither liberty nor safety."
Another great Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson said "Our duty is... to act upon things as they are and to make a reasonable provision for whatever they may be. Were armies to be raised whenever a speck of war is visible in our horizon, we never should have been without them. Our resources would have been exhausted on dangers which have never happened instead of being reserved for what is really to take place." --Thomas Jefferson: 6th Annual Message, 1806. ME 3:424

George Washington, at the end of the War for independence, had the entire power of the continental army behind himand could have marched right into Philadelphia and declared himself dictator. Instead, he resigned his commission and returned to farm his Mount Vernon. He was also a man who proposed the establishment of a permanent Department of Peace!

These great men were peace loving but quite willing to protect their liberties. Why are not we?

[Amonester]

21. ... maybe 'the military' knows where the missing nukular cruise is?

what happened to THAT story? anybody knows?

[dothemath]

22. Posse comitatus ???????

What happened to the National Guard? The Army Reserve?
Oh wait, they are all in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Along with 160,000 or so 'private contractors' and over 100,000 regular
servicemen and women. Looks like we ran out of young people we could send to slaughter a long time ago.
God forbid a few republicans should volunteer. Maybe a few Romneys?
Just askin'...................

[balantz]

23. By 2011 perhaps the general citizenry will finally have wakened to the facts.

By then (or before), a few years into a sickening world depression, and perhaps a military draft to give more of our children and grandchildren something to feed their bellies with as they wage the wars of the elite imperialists, people will finally see that the whole game is a sham. The government of the ruling elite will need all of those troops stationed about to keep people from prying open the food supplies and from clawing the eyes out of the corporate-elite warmongers who care nothing about us or our shredded Constitution.

[balantz]

24. I'm curious how these troops are selected?

And will there be private contractors in the mix?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

25. BS! I know for a fact preparations for this "deployment" have been in place for years.

Why is this kind of crap pushed forward, NOW, when it's been in the making?

The perpetual state of crisis shit is getting on my last nerve!!!!

The media's insistence upon profiteering off a perpetual state of crisis will be its destruction.

[lovuian]

26. Martial Law cometh but let me tell ya if they think those

20,000 service men & women don't know who they serve
they be stupid

[L. Coyote]

27. No. Isn't the word "indoctrinated"

Stupid soldiers are ineffective. Indoctrination is a necessity for soldiers, to train them to kill other people.

[Earth_First]

28. I have the sneaking suspicion that this is organized in preparation for the economic catastrophe...

With MILLIONS of individuals who are so far removed from the events on Wall Street affecting their daily lives and their abilities to provide for their families, I fear that it will take many more than 20,000 troops to quell this insurrection.

Think about it. Are YOU ready to lay down everything you've worked for and turn it over to the individuals who were responsible for this entire event. To be perfectly honest with you, it will take several of these gangsters to pull me from my home. My home that my wife and I created by following all the rules that our parents practiced.

I'll be perfectly god damned if some banker who spends $10, 15, 20 THOUSAND dollars to travel to Washington (and lobby our elected leaders to the tune of millions of dollars) to allow that banker to take our home and everything I've worked 8-12 hours a day to own.

I'm ready. Come and take it.

Perhaps this paints me in the light of some wackjob, rightwing freeper. However, I can guarantee you that we are far from this.

I am so disgusted with what our country has become...