to a very good video on Texasville's site about the deployment of troops on US soil that happened Oct. 1st. (To view it you will need to be one of his contacts).
This is a very short C-Span Clip.
I've blogged on this too:
Here's some more info from my previous blogs:
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.
-Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1385
Things are always fluid...
What seems likely at one moment seems less so in the next...
However the overall plan is always moving forward:
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
Barack Husein Obama told us he plans to create a standing conscripted Youth Security Force in the US that is "just as powerful, just as strong and just as well funded" as the US military (click the graphic below for details)! But he's just one player among many...
We had assumed these new Youth HS troops would be built on the engine of Bill Clinton's Americorps, and it still may... but before McCain or Obama takes office (if either do) the US military WILL be stationed ON U.S. SOIL despite the Constitutional ban on doing that!
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.
-Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1385
For the past several years I and many others have been expecting an "October Surprise '08." EVERYTHING is fluid! Maybe it will happen then, maybe it it wont... BUT guess what is happening on October 1st!
Army Times Details Army Invasion of U.S.
Army Combat Team to Train for “Homeland Scenarios” Under NorthCom
Gina Cavallaro
Army Times
September 18, 2008
Emphasis mine:
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.
Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.
Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.
But this new mission marks 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.
After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.
“Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future,” said Army Col. Louis Vogler, chief of NorthCom future operations. “Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.”
The command is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga., where they’ll be able to go to school, spend time with their families and train for their new homeland mission as well as the counterinsurgency mission in the war zones.
Stop-loss will not be in effect, so soldiers will be able to leave the Army or move to new assignments during the mission, and the operational tempo will be variable.
Don’t look for any extra time off, though. The at-home mission does not take the place of scheduled combat-zone deployments and will take place during the so-called dwell time a unit gets to reset and regenerate after a deployment.
The 1st of the 3rd is still scheduled to deploy to either Iraq or Afghanistan in early 2010, which means the soldiers will have been home a minimum of 20 months by the time they ship out.
In the meantime, 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.
Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.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.
“I’m not a small guy, I weigh 230 pounds … it put me on my knees in seconds.”
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”).
“I can’t think of a more noble mission than this,” said Cloutier, who took command in July. “We’ve been all over the world during this time of conflict, but now our mission is to take care of citizens at home … [I bet!] and depending on where an event occurred, you’re going home to take care of your home town, your loved ones.”
While soldiers’ combat training is applicable, he said, some nuances don’t apply.
“If we go in, we’re going in to help American citizens on American soil, to save lives, provide critical life support, help clear debris, restore normalcy and support whatever local agencies need us to do, so it’s kind of a different role,” said Cloutier, who, as the division operations officer on the last rotation, learned of the homeland mission a few months ago while they were still in Iraq.
Some brigade elements will be on call around the clock, during which time they’ll do their regular marksmanship, gunnery and other deployment training. That’s because the unit will continue to train and reset for the next deployment, even as it serves in its CCMRF mission.
Should personnel be needed at an earthquake in California, for example, all or part of the brigade could be scrambled there, depending on the extent of the need and the specialties involved.
Other branches included
The active Army’s new dwell-time mission is part of a NorthCom and DOD response package.
Active-duty soldiers will be part of a force that includes elements from other military branches and dedicated National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams.
A final mission rehearsal exercise is scheduled for mid-September at Fort Stewart and will be run by Joint Task Force Civil Support, a unit based out of Fort Monroe, Va., that will coordinate and evaluate the interservice event.
In addition to 1st BCT, other Army units will take part in the two-week training exercise, including elements of the 1st Medical Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Bragg, N.C.
There also will be Air Force engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, a Navy weather team and members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
One of the things Vogler said they’ll be looking at is communications capabilities between the services.
“It is a concern, and we’re trying to check that and one of the ways we do that is by having these sorts of exercises. Leading up to this, we are going to rehearse and set up some of the communications systems to make sure we have interoperability,” he said.
“I don’t know what America’s overall plan is — I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if they’re called,” Cloutier said. “It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has dedicated a force to come in and help the people at home.”
Friday, February 22, 2008
|
Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other's borders during an emergency, but some are questioning why the Harper government has kept silent on the deal.
Neither the Canadian government nor the Canadian Forces announced the new agreement, which was signed Feb. 14 in Texas.
The U.S. military's Northern Command, however, publicized the agreement with a statement outlining how its top officer, Gen. Gene Renuart, and Canadian Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, head of Canada Command, signed the plan, which allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency.
The new agreement has been greeted with suspicion by the left wing in Canada and the right wing in the U.S.
The left-leaning Council of Canadians, which is campaigning against what it calls the increasing integration of the U.S. and Canadian militaries, is raising concerns about the deal.
"It's kind of a trend when it comes to issues of Canada-U.S. relations and contentious issues like military integration. We see that this government is reluctant to disclose information to Canadians that is readily available on American and Mexican websites," said Stuart Trew, a researcher with the Council of Canadians.
Trew said there is potential for the agreement to militarize civilian responses to emergency incidents. He noted that work is also underway for the two nations to put in place a joint plan to protect common infrastructure such as roadways and oil pipelines.
"Are we going to see (U.S.) troops on our soil for minor potential threats to a pipeline or a road?" he asked.
Trew also noted the U.S. military does not allow its soldiers to operate under foreign command so there are questions about who controls American forces if they are requested for service in Canada. "We don't know the answers because the government doesn't want to even announce the plan," he said.
But Canada Command spokesman Commander David Scanlon said it will be up to civilian authorities in both countries on whether military assistance is requested or even used.
He said the agreement is "benign" and simply sets the stage for military-to-military co-operation if the governments approve.
"But there's no agreement to allow troops to come in," he said. "It facilitates planning and co-ordination between the two militaries. The 'allow' piece is entirely up to the two governments."
If U.S. forces were to come into Canada they would be under tactical control of the Canadian Forces but still under the command of the U.S. military, Scanlon added.
News of the deal, and the allegation it was kept secret in Canada, is already making the rounds on left-wing blogs and Internet sites as an example of the dangers of the growing integration between the two militaries.
On right-wing blogs in the U.S. it is being used as evidence of a plan for a "North American union" where foreign troops, not bound by U.S. laws, could be used by the American federal government to override local authorities.
"Co-operative militaries on Home Soil!" notes one website. "The next time your town has a 'national emergency,' don't be surprised if Canadian soldiers respond. And remember - Canadian military aren't bound by posse comitatus."
Posse comitatus is a U.S. law that prohibits the use of federal troops from conducting law enforcement duties on domestic soil unless approved by Congress.
Scanlon said there was no intent to keep the agreement secret on the Canadian side of the border. He noted it will be reported on in the Canadian Forces newspaper next week and that publication will be put on the Internet.
Scanlon said the actual agreement hasn't been released to the public as that requires approval from both nations. That decision has not yet been taken, he added.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
As I reported on October 1:
...as of today Posse Comitatus is dead: http://johnofallfaith.multiply.com/journal/item/992
I don't support Chuck Baldwin's bid for the White House, but in this piece he shares information that to my amazement most Americans seem to be ignoring!
U.S. Army Troops To Serve As U.S. Policemen?
By Chuck Baldwin
October 1, 2008
This column is archived at
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2008/cbarchive_20081001.html
According to the Army Times (dated Tuesday, September 30, 2008),
"Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT [Brigade Combat Team] will be under
the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of
Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or
manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks."
The article continued by saying, "But this new mission marks 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.
"After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that
another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that
the
mission will be a permanent one."
The Times column also reported that the Army brigade "may be called
upon to
help with civil unrest and crowd control . . ." It seems that the
Army's new
domestic duties also include "traffic control" as well as subduing
"unruly
or dangerous individuals."
The brigade will be known for the next year as a Consequence Management
Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced "sea-smurf").
I am assuming that the planners and promoters of this newfound function
for
the Army brigade envision the Army assisting local first responders in
dealing with natural emergencies such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and
the
like. Good intentions notwithstanding, to assign domestic police duties
to
the U.S. military is extremely disturbing.
To understand my concern for this new "homeland Army brigade," it is
important that we rehearse the principles of liberty as they relate to
standing armies.
One of America's most sacred principles has always been that the U.S.
military was never to be used for domestic law enforcement. The fear of
standing armies ran very deep in the hearts and minds of America's
founders.
The tyranny and misery inflicted upon the colonies by British troops
weighed
heavily upon those who drafted our Constitution and Bill of Rights. In
their
minds, the American people would never again be subjected to the heavy
weight of army boots. Furthermore, they insisted that America would
have a
civilian--not military--government.
And after the fiasco of the abuse of federal troops in the South
following
the War Between the States, the doctrine of Posse Comitatus was enacted
into
law. The Wikipedia online encyclopedia says this about Posse Comitatus:
"The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services ...
from
exercising nominally state law enforcement police or peace officer
powers
that maintain 'law and order' on non-federal property. . . .
"The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units
of the
United States National Guard under federal authority from acting in a
law
enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly
authorized by the Constitution or Congress. . . .
"The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit
the
powers of the federal government to use the military for law
enforcement."
The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878 and was universally accepted
as
being a very just--and extremely important--law of the land.
But in 2006, President George W. Bush pushed a Republican-controlled
Congress to pass the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2007, which included a section titled "Use of the Armed
Forces
in major public emergencies." This section provided that "The President
may
employ the armed forces to restore public order in any State of the
United
States the President determines...." In effect, this bill obliterated
Posse
Comitatus.
When the Democrat-controlled Congress passed the 2008 National Defense
Authorization Act, however, the restrictions of Posse Comitatus were
restored. But when President Bush signed the Act into law, he attached
a
signing statement (Executive Order) indicating that the Executive
Branch did
not feel bound by the changes enacted by the repeal. Translated:
President
Bush wiped out Posse Comitatus by Executive Order.
Now, just a few months after expunging Posse Comitatus, President Bush
has
authorized an Army brigade to be assigned the new role of dealing
exclusively with domestic law enforcement and related duties. This
evokes
serious questions.
Who will give the order to send U.S. troops against American civilians,
and
under what circumstances? What will the rules of engagement be? How
will
"unruly" and "dangerous" be defined? How will soldiers be asked to deal
with
"crowd" or "traffic" control? And perhaps the biggest question is, Once
we
begin to go down this road, where will it lead?
For several years, the federal government has been accumulating to
itself
more and more authority that was historically understood to reside
within
the states and local communities. More and more, our police departments
have
taken on the image and tactics of the armed forces. And to a greater
and
greater degree, the rights and liberties of the American people are
being
sacrificed on the altar of "national security." It seems to me that to
now
ascribe law enforcement duties to the U.S. Army only serves to augment
the
argument that America is fast approaching police state status.
If Hurricane Katrina is the template that our federal government is
using as
a model for future events, Heaven help us! Do readers remember how
National
Guard troops were used to confiscate the personal firearms of isolated
and
vulnerable civilians shortly after that hurricane devastated the New
Orleans
area? Do you remember how representatives of the federal government
were
calling upon pastors and ministers to act as spokesmen for gun
confiscation?
Is this what the new Army brigade is preparing for? And do President
Bush
and his military planners envision an even broader role for military
troops
on American soil?
Add to the above rumors of thousands of plastic caskets--along with
thousands of portable prison cells--being shipped and stored across the
country, and one is left to ask, Exactly what is it that our federal
government is planning?
I think there is an even bigger question, What exactly will members of
our
armed forces do if and when they are commanded to seize Americans'
firearms,
arrest them at gun point, or even fire upon them? How many soldiers and
Marines love liberty and constitutional government enough to resist
such
orders, should they be given? And how many officers would resist
issuing
such orders?
Remember, it is the job of the armed forces to kill people and blow up
things, not to do police work. Then again, Presidential administrations
from
both major parties have been using the U.S. military as U.N.
"peacekeepers"
for decades now. So, was all of this preparation for what is yet to
take
place in the United States?
God forbid that any of the above should actually take place in our
beloved
land, but I believe it would be naïve to not see that the actions and
attitudes of the federal government over the past several years do
nothing
to assuage such fears.
*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these
editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be
made by
credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/donate.php
*Disclaimer: I am currently a candidate for President of the United
States
on the Constitution Party ticket. My official campaign web site is
located
at:
http://www.baldwin08.com/
(c) Chuck Baldwin
NOTE TO THE READER:
This email editorial cannot be considered Spam as long as the sender
includes contact information and a method of removal.
To subscribe, click on this link and follow the instructions:
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/subscribe.php
To unsubscribe, click on this link and follow the instructions:
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/unsubscribe.php
Chuck Baldwin's commentaries are copyrighted and may be republished,
reposted, or emailed providing the person or organization doing so does
not
charge for subscriptions or advertising and that the column is copied
intact
and that full credit is given and that Chuck's web site address is
included.
Editors or Publishers of publications charging for subscriptions or
advertising who want to run these columns must contact Chuck Baldwin
for
permission. Radio or television Talk Show Hosts interested in
scheduling an
interview with Chuck should contact chuck@chuckbaldwinlive.com
Readers may also respond to this column via snail mail. The postal
address
is P.O. Box 37070, Pensacola, Florida. When responding, please include
your
name, city and state. And, unless otherwise requested, all respondents
will
be added to the Chuck Wagon address list.
Please visit Chuck's web site at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com
No comments:
Post a Comment