Glenn Greenwald: Why Is a US Army Brigade Being Assigned to the 'Homeland'?

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/25-7

Why Is a US Army Brigade Being Assigned to the 'Homeland'?

by 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 of the 3rd Infantry Division> 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." The article details:

They'll learn new skills, use some of the ones they acquired in the war zone and more than likely will not be shot at while doing any of it.

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack. . . .

The 1st BCT's soldiers also will learn how to use "the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded," 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

"It's a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they're fielding. They've been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we're undertaking we were the first to get it."

The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.

"I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered," said Cloutier, describing the experience as "your worst muscle cramp ever -- times 10 throughout your whole body". . . .

The brigade will not change its name, but the force will be known for the next year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced "sea-smurf").

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). Though there have been some erosions of this prohibition over the last several decades (most perniciously to allow the use of the military to work with law enforcement agencies in the "War on Drugs"), the bright line ban on using the U.S. military as a standing law enforcement force inside the U.S. has been more or less honored -- until now. And as the Army Times notes, once this particular brigade completes its one-year assignment, "expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one."

snip//

UPDATE II: There's no need to start manufacturing all sorts of scare scenarios about Bush canceling elections or the imminent declaration of martial law or anything of that sort. None of that is going to happen with a single brigade and it's unlikely in the extreme that they'd be announcing these deployments if they had activated any such plans. The point is that the deployment is a very dangerous precedent, quite possibly illegal, and a radical abandonment of an important democratic safeguard. As always with first steps of this sort, the danger lies in how the power can be abused in the future.

[orestes]

1. Sounds like a modern crossing of the Rubicon to me

I don't see how anything good can come of this.

[ellie]

2. My mom heard

this on George Noory and called me up very upset. I told her that I had read about it on DU. Yay DU! Anyway, I had no comforting words for her about it.

[babylonsister]

3. I wish I could help you and her out, but I'm at a loss, too. nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. And where, exactly, are they to be based?

Somewhere in the middle of the country, like Ft Riley or Leonard Wood, where they could be deployed quickly and easily to anywhere nationwide? Or just outside DC, where they will be deployed to 'defend' the Capitol?

Equipment for road blocks? Non-lethal riot control weapons? This will protect us against Al Queda just how?

What the fuck are they expecting? A civil uprising? And WHY would they expect THAT?

ON EDIT: As "V" said, a government should be afraid of its people - and it sounds to me like this one IS.

[jimshoes]

5. They will do what they were trained for

to you and me, unfortunately.

[niyad]

6. and how many blackwater personnel? looking at the list of possible scenarios is chilling-

almost like they are telling us HOW they are planning to make it necessary to use these killers.